The Sannin's Apprentice
by Panory Bro
Summary: The Sannin are the heroes of an old generation. When the team fails a mission, The Third Hokage has them choose from the Academy students an apprentice a piece to train up and replace them. Only time will tell though whether this new team will be as successful as their mentors.
1. Chapter 1

The Sannin's Apprentice

Chapter 1

The Sannin were legends. The true terror of facing the Sannin wasn't so much that they were S-Ranked ninja, the world had plenty of those. No, the respect they commanded came more from the fact that they were a _team_ of S-Ranked ninja, something unheard of in the ninja world. It was rare for the entire team to be deployed on a mission, but that was mostly because only one was ever really needed to deter wars and assassins.

Which made the fact that Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade were all on the same protection detail all the more odd. It made sense that the successor of the Land of Fire's throne would require the best protection, and there was no doubt that the Sannin were the best, but the prince also had his own bodyguards, body doubles to do the public appearances, and the best spies in the country keeping an ear to the ground for any assassination attempts.

"I can't believe this brat's coming of age ceremony has pulled me away from my research." complained Orochimaru in an attempt to fill the silence with some form of noise, even if it meant talking to Jiraiya.

"Aw, buck up!" exclaimed the long haired toad summoner. "It could always be worse. The client could be an insufferable ass about all this. As it is, he's only a sufferable ass!"

The prince himself smiled into his sleeve subtly at Jiraiya's banter, but the one samurai charged with guarding him half drew his katana on the Sannin in barely contained anger. "How dare you talk about His Excellency like that! Perhaps I should cut your pride down to size. How does a head shorter sound?"

"Now, now, Tsurugi." said the prince, holding a hand up placatingly. "To be honest, it's rather refreshing to have such blunt language around me. I know you're just tense because you care, but please calm yourself. There's been absolutely no reason to suspect there will be any foul play today during the parade, and even if there is, I have you and three of the best ninja the Hidden Leaf has to offer to protect me."

The hot blooded samurai slowly sheathed his sword, glaring at Jiraiya, who grinned back sheepishly. "Of course, Your Majesty. I only fear for your safety in the hands of these ninja." The Sannin resumed their watch while Tsurugi turned the opposite direction. Between the four of them, every direction was covered. Except for within.

A glazed look fell over Tsurugi's eyes, and he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, a gesture dismissed by the others as precaution and nerves. A combination of speed and the shock of the others allowed him to unsheathe the blade with a quickness that made samurai viable warriors in the time of ninja and slash the prince across the back. The monarch-to-be fell to the ground, equal parts confused and betrayed.

"The hell?" shouted Jiraiya as he stopped the blade from running him through, and slammed a swirling ball of pure blue energy into the samurai's armored stomach. The iron protection did little to stop the Rasengan, and Tsurugi was sent spinning through the wall, dead before he hit the ground. Tsunade moved quickly once the crisis was brought up, healing the wound on the prince's back. The bleeding cut slowly began to stitch itself closed under the master medic's guiding hand, but then Tsunade noticed the purple lines spreading out from the closing wound.

"Damn it, poison!" cursed the blonde Sannin as she quickly tried to diagnose the poison and administer the antidote. By the time the outer security arrived, the chaos had died down, the only evidence of the betrayal was a broken wall, and a crater punched into the floor by a frustrated medic after failing to save a patient.

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"Report." said the Third Hokage, his face and voice betraying no emotion save for the bit of annoyance at his pupils.

"The traitor infiltrated the client's guard over long years of loyal service. There was never any reason to suspect duplicity. During the mission, he drew his sword and struck the client, using the element of surprise and trust to land the blow. I dispatched him before any more damage could be done." said Jiraiya, wearing a grim visage as he stared straight ahead and stood ramrod straight.

"I began to administer first-aid to the patient, and successfully healed the wound. However, the blade had been poisoned beforehand, and the complexity of the toxin defied a quick remedy. Perhaps with the proper ingredients and a few days to analyze the poison, I could have created an antidote, but not on the spot like that." continued Tsunade, picking up where Jiraiya left off seamlessly.

Orochimaru finished the mission report with his own findings. "During my dissection, I came across evidence of previous tampering. Jiraiya examined the seal found inside the subject's cranium, and managed to identify it as a memory altering seal of unknown origin. Coupled with the poison that far exceeds masterful in its concoction, and we have reason to believe that the rogue samurai was merely a pawn being used by the true assassin."

"And this true assassin would be…?" asked the Third Hokage, his curiosity aroused. If there was one thing The Professor loved, it was a good mystery, and it was the silver lining to a very dark cloud.

"We have no real name or face at the moment, but the skill with both seals and poisons suggests someone who works extensively in both fields. I suspect a puppet user is responsible, though a rogue one, as the Hidden Sand wouldn't risk war by ordering such an assassination." theorized Orochimaru. The profile made sense, as the only other option would be a highly specialized support ninja with absolutely no combat skill. Most support ninja didn't live long enough to reach such a level of mastery without applying their knowledge in more conventional defenses. The only profession that used seals and poisons extensively and effectively were puppeteers.

The Third Hokage dropped his stern façade with a heavy sigh. "I'm not blaming you for what happened on the mission, it could have and would have happened to anyone. I'm just worried about the image this presents to the other villages. I'm afraid all they'll see is the Legendary Sannin failing a high profile mission. The skill of your opponent likely won't even factor in."

"True, soon we won't be active ninja at all." mused Jiraiya forlornly. "I can keep spying, Tsunade can keep healing, and Orochimaru can keep… doing Orochimaru things, but as for active duty, we're getting a little too long in the tooth to keep up a near perfect record like this." Orochimaru glared at his white haired teammate upon hearing his research referred to like that.

"Sadly, my lecherous comrade is correct, practically if not politically. I've yet to figure out the secret of immortality" joked Orochimaru, neglecting to mention the hundreds that had died in his attempts. They all knew what he did, no need to bring it up again. "Perhaps we will just need to be content with our past accomplishments as we fade into obscurity." he lamented. Jiraiya wasn't sure if Orochimaru was being sarcastic or morbid, but no one was ever sure when Orochimaru's notoriously dark humor was on display over his equally notorious dark demeanor.

"Has a Hidden Village ever just lost three S-Ranked ninja at one time like that though?" pointed out Tsunade. "I'm not sure that we can afford to just stop until the Hidden Leaf has a few more legends to fall back on."

"An interesting proposal. Who would you recommend to fill the void we will leave? Kakashi Hatake perhaps? The man with stolen jutsu copied with a stolen eye? Few respect him as more than a decent opponent. Might Guy? The man who cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu? Or perhaps sensei's wayward son, who left the village itself for years on end?" said Orochimaru, mocking and dismissing each choice as he rattled them off. "Face it Tsunade, our ninja simply don't have the training we did. Sensei was able to elevate even _Jiraiya_ to one of the most respected and feared ninja in the world. Kakashi and Guy's teachers couldn't do that, and neither can they."

"Orochimaru's right, much as it pains me to say that." said Jiraiya, only half joking. "When it comes to S-Ranked ninja's, the training pedigree is almost as important as actual skill. Being trained by anyone less qualified than an S-ranked ninja is a quick ride to obscurity, barring a few exceptions."

"Perhaps…" started the Third Hokage, drifting off into thought before he could finish his thought. Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, and Tsunade was visibly annoyed by her mentor's secrecy. Jiraiya was curious and excited though, two things that made for an energetic Sannin.

"Come on Sensei, you can't just leave us hanging like that!" complained the Toad Sage like a petulant child. Orochimaru sighed at his teammate's antics, and Tsunade had to breathe deeply to prevent herself from adding an injury that she would have to heal later to the old pervert.

"I was just thinking, perhaps it's time you three took on some students." said the elderly Hokage, grinning at his pupils' reactions. The three were obviously not all that keen on the idea, and Orochimaru was the only one who appeared to be giving it serious thought. Tsunade had reverted to the attitude held by a rebellious teenager, dead set on not training anymore students simply because it had been suggested to her. Jiraiya on the other hand seemed almost depressed about the idea.

It made sense to the Hokage. Out of the three of them, Jiraiya's apprentice had been the one to achieve the most. Shizune and Anko were good ninja, no doubt about it, but neither of them enjoyed the success Minato had. The Fourth Hokage was also the only one of the three to have died in the line of duty. And while they hadn't been Leaf ninja, the Third had heard in passing about three orphans Jiraiya had trained during the war that had also died.

"I'm not training a team of little brats. Medical ninjutsu is not for the faint of heart. Anyone you assign me would be dead within the week due their own gross incompetence." complained Tsunade.

The Third smiled again. "Then I shall allow you to choose one apprentice. A full team for each of you is a bit much. After all you aren't me." The Hokage laughed a bit at his own joke. "If you feel there are no worthy candidates to train, we can wait and try again next year."

"You've finally gone senile, old man. Jiraiya, you agree with me, right?" asked Tsunade, turning to her teammate who had been uncharacteristically quiet. She was surprised when he slowly looked their Sensei in the eyes and spoke up.

"I'll give it a shot. Just one." The Third was just as surprised as Tsunade, even if he didn't show it outwardly as she did. He had honestly expected Orochimaru would be the only supporter of this spur of the moment idea. He certainly never expected Jiraiya to go along willingly, let alone support the idea.

"Then it's settled. I'll leave the manner of testing up to you three then." said the Third, waving his hand in a bit of an informal dismissal as he raised his pipe to his mouth and took a long draw.

"No need for my apprentice." said Orochimaru cryptically as he walked out. "There's only one possible candidate for me, I just have to see if he can cut it."

"Weirdo." muttered Jiraiya under his breath as he made to exit through the window. "I'll hold auditions of some sort at the Academy. You should consider something likewise Tsunade."

Tsunade stood, mouth hanging open as she tried to process how easily her male teammates had taken this new development in stride. The Third Hokage looked up over the brim of some papers he had begun to read. "Tsunade, if you don't mind, I'm a busy man, and this meeting has gone on longer than expected already. I suggest you get moving on your test as well."

Still shell shocked, Tsunade shuffled wordlessly out of the office.

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"Alright class, that concludes today's lesson on the history of the Second Hokage's skill with Earth ninjutsu, which as we learned was…" Iruka trailed off expectantly, pointing to Sakura when she raised her hand.

"Almost nonexistent." replied the pink haired bookworm eagerly. Sakura instantly looked to see whether Sasuke had seen her get the answer right, only to be disappointed by the Uchiha's black eyes boring holes in the chalkboard at the front of the room.

"Good to see you were paying attention, Sakura." said Iruka. The smile dropped from his face as another one of his student's caught his eye. "Unlike some of us. Naruto!"

The blonde haired student in question shot awake at the sound of his name, nearly falling out of his chair in the process. Naruto barely managed to catch himself on the edge of the desk in front of him and avoid a painful crash. "I'm totally awake Sensei! And I was paying attention the whole time, honest!"

Iruka raised an eyebrow at Naruto's obvious attempt to salvage some chance of avoiding detention. "Really? Then you won't mind telling me which type of ninjutsu the Second Hokage was renowned for worldwide?"

Naruto's brow furrowed as he frantically filed through his brain for the answer. His blue eyes lit up when he remembered the obvious answer. "Well obviously the _Fire_ Shadow from the Land of _Fire_ would be a master of Fire Style ninjutsu." Naruto's sky-high confidence came crashing back to Earth as his classmates snickered.

Iruka sighed and placed a hand on his head. "No Naruto, that's incorrect. He was renowned worldwide for his unparalleled skill with the Water Style. If you had been paying attention you would have known that."

"Well it's not my fault he used such a random ninjutsu style. Maybe someone should have had a talk with him about common sense." said Naruto as he quickly denied his involvement in the failure. Iruka's eyelid twitched as Naruto continued. "And maybe you shouldn't teach such boring lessons."

"Naruto, the Second Hokage used the Water Style because he mastered it before he and the First Hokage founded the Hidden Leaf Village. Before that, he fought people that mostly used the Fire Style." said Iruka, carefully neglecting to mention the name of the Fire Style using clan that the Second Hokage had fought for the majority of his life out of respect for the dead. "Can you see now why using Water Style ninjutsu would be useful?"

Naruto squinted down at the floor as his argument was quickly dismantled before his eyes. Wracking his brain for another answer, he came up blank. "Well, uh, obviously, you see…" The floundering academy student was saved by the entrance of a masked ninja that appeared in the middle of the room. The Appearance of an ANBU agent in the classroom should have been enough to get the entire student body gossiping for hours, but they all knew better than to talk about an ANBU behind his back while he was still present.

The masked ninja handed a scroll to Iruka. "Orders from Lord Hokage." were the quick instructions that accompanied the message. Making a seal to focus his chakra, the ANBU agent disappeared as he had arrived, in a cloud of smoke. All ANBU training graduates were capable of using the Body Flicker technique without hand seals, but the anonymous ninja couldn't help but show off a bit for the kids. Even though it was easier, a single hand seal was flashier than the more utilitarian alternative.

As soon as he had left, the classroom was silent for a moment before exploding into conversation. Iruka let it continue as he read over the scroll, making sure none could see the orders easily. Once he was done, Iruka rolled up the scroll and coughed subtly to get the class's attention. When that failed spectacularly, he opted to get their attention in a more vocal way. "QUIET!" The students jumped a bit at the loud shout from the front of the room before sheepishly quieting down.

Clearing his throat, Iruka continued. "These are orders form the Third Hokage himself, and while most of it is administrative things I'll need to handle, there is one bit of information I'm allowed, no, supposed to share with you." Any attention the class hadn't had firmly on Iruka was fixed there now. Even Shikamaru had deigned to wake up, and Sasuke looked a bit more attentive, if such a thing were possible. "In one month's time, the Three Legendary Sannin will be holding… auditions of sorts, the purpose of which will be to select a single apprentice for each of them. The three will be looking for certain things that I don't know about, but whoever impresses them the most will be selected to become their apprentice."

The news, coupled with the unfortunate timing of the bell was enough to send every student clamoring out of the classroom, eager to begin training to earn the prestigious position. Even Shikamaru drug his feet a little less, and Sasuke of all people looked downright eager to get training. Naruto in the meantime, was making a beeline straight for a place he had vowed to avoid for the rest of his life. The library. If he could get a book, any book, about the Sannin, he could figure out exactly how to impress them. Naruto wasn't one for reading, but desperate times called for desperate measure.

Naruto sprinted into the library, slowing considerably when the librarian glared at from behind horn rimmed glasses. Tiptoeing through the library, Naruto searched for the books about legendary ninja, only to find every last one dealing with the legendary Sannin missing. "What! Where are the books?"

"You, looking for a book? This world really is full of wonders." Naruto turned around at the angelic voice behind him to come face to face with Sakura. "And can you be any louder? This is a library."

"Sakura! You gotta help me!" Noticing her scowl, Naruto continued, albeit at a much lower volume. "All the books about the Sannin are gone. It's probably some kind of book thief or something. You gotta help me find them, I need those books!"

"There's no 'book thief' Naruto. I checked those books out last week for an extra credit report I've been working on. I was on my way to renew them when I saw you here. I was wondering why you of all people were here, but now it all makes sense." said Sakura as she began to walk away.

"No, wait Sakura, don't go!" Naruto whisper-yelled as he speed-walked after her. "I need those books! If you give them to me… I'll go out on a date with you!"

Sakura stopped, and Naruto almost ran into her. The pink haired bookworm slowly turned around to look at Naruto with a mix of repulsion and curiosity. "I would rather burn these books than give them to you if that's the case."

"Come on Sakura! At least tell me what they're about. Anything would help." begged Naruto as he fell to his knees, comically begging at her feet.

Sakura sighed heavily as she opened one of the three books she had with one hand and absently flipped through it. "Fine. I won't tell you too much though. I still want to win that apprenticeship as well. Lady Tsunade is revered for her strength and medical knowledge, Lord Jiraiya for his ninjutsu and seals, and Lord Orochimaru for his unique and forbidden ninjutsu that he develops himself. We covered all that in class last week in the supplemental readings, so I'm guessing it's all new information to you."

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" cried Naruto as he hugged Sakura's legs melodramatically. "Thank you so much Sakura!"

"Yuck! Get off me!" exclaimed Sakura as she smacked Naruto over the head with the Tales of the Gallant Jiraiya. The girl looked over her head to Naruto, who was nursing a new head wound. "I plan on getting a spot, and Sasuke's a shoe-in. I suppose that leaves a spot left for you, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt too much to wish you luck."

Naruto's eyes began to well up with tears at the gesture. "Sakura… do you want to go out with me later today?"

"No. In fact, forget what I just said, I hope you fail catastrophically. Bye." deadpanned Sakura as she headed to the checkout counter to renew her loan on the books. Naruto groaned at his latest failure, but was soon in good enough spirits once leaving the oppressive atmosphere of the library. Naruto had done some digging around town for any more info on the Sannin, and had struck gold with a book written by Jiraiya himself. Naruto decided to celebrate by testing out Ichiraku's new delivery service, and headed home instead of to the ramen stand. After eating the noodles, Naruto came to the conclusion that they were still superior to every other food, though much better when fresh.

"Alright, I don't even know what forbidden techniques are, other than the fact that they're forbidden, so I probably won't be learning some anytime soon." mused Naruto aloud. "I totally bombed that first aid unit last year, so there's no way I could make it as Tsunade's apprentice. That leaves Jiraiya. And he uses ninjutsu. Ha, easy enough! Look out world, here comes Naruto Uzumaki, Sannin's apprentice in the making!"

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The Academy was not just a single building, but rather a large compound consisting of several large buildings. Several were devoted to teaching students, and were what most people referred to when talking about the Academy. There was also an administrative section where the Hokage's Office and various other mission dispensing places were located. The older chunin and jonin who worked in the administrative portion of the compound rarely interacted with the Academy students, to the point that it was very easy to forget you worked at a school.

Not today though. Today was a spectacle that drug out every administrator and assistant that wasn't assigned a job of national security and upmost importance. And even a few that had. Today the Three Legendary Sannin, three of the most prestigious ninja to come out of the Hidden Leaf Village in decades, were holding auditions of a sort to select an apprentice from the Academy students. While none of the children were likely to do anything that they all couldn't do, it was still a big event.

And big events meant nerves. "Oh man, I hope I'm ready." muttered Naruto under his breath as he waited for his name to be called. One disadvantage of having a name that began with the letter U was being called near the end of any alphabetical list.  
>"Hmph. I was born ready. You could save yourself some time and just go home now." gloated Sasuke, who was sitting next to Naruto. Another disadvantage of having a name starting with the letter U was being forced to sit next to others whose names started with the letter U. Sandwiched between his least favorite person in the world and one of the Uchiha's fans, Naruto was not in a good mood.<p>

"Of course Sasuke's going to win the spot. A dead last like you doesn't stand a chance." boasted Ino from Naruto's left.

"If Sasuke's going to win the spot, why are you even here?" asked Naruto in confusion. Ino looked at him as if he were stupid.

"There's three spots available. I'm not going for the same spot Sasuke is, simple as that." explained Ino simply. A tester popped his head around the doorframe. "Uchiha, Sasuke?" he asked in a bored tone, as if he didn't know who was next. "This way please."

Sasuke stood up, the perfect picture of confidence. "I'd ask you to wish me luck, but I won't need it." The Uchiha exited into the next room without looking back.

"So cool…" muttered Ino as Naruto settled for trying to set Sasuke on fire with his glare as he ground his teeth together.

"Alright kiddo." Sasuke's eyes narrowed at being called kiddo, but he knew better than to speak up to an S-Rank ninja that could put him in the fast lane in regards to catching up to _him_. "Show me what you got. Your best ninjutsu." said Jiraiya, trying to sound excited about watching another substation, or a clone, or a transformation, as if any of those would impress a man of such high taste.

Sasuke didn't respond, instead running through the seals that had been passed down through the Uchiha clan as a coming of age ritual for generations. "**Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!**" It was lucky that the area being used for testing was the one used by the ninja of the village for jutsu development, and therefore fireproof. The flames bore down on the Sannin quickly, and engulfed Jiraiya for several seconds. Sasuke was worried for a brief second, thinking that he had accidently killed the man who was supposed to teach him before remembering that Jiraiya was a Sannin, and not capable of being killed so easily.

Even knowing Jiraiya was undoubtedly alive wasn't enough to stop the reflexive jump when a hand placed itself on his shoulder. "Well now, that was certainly a surprise. You really live up to your clan name, kid. Unfortunately, I don't take your clan name into account. We'll see if that was good enough, but I won't lie, it's looking good for you. NEXT!" Sasuke flinched again when Jiraiya shouted right next to his ear. Still, it wasn't enough to put a damper on his spirits. The only people left were Naruto and Ino, and Ino was trying to pass Tsunade's test.

Sasuke made sure to wear a cocky smirk as he walked out. After all, confidence was half the battle. Naruto glared as he walked past the Uchiha, but quickly dropped that once he entered the testing room. "Alright kiddo. Show me what you got. Hit me with your best ninjutsu." said Jiraiya, still a bit excited about finding a student who might be passable.

"Alright then, I've been working on this one for a while!" Naruto threw his hands into the seals for the transformation technique, and Jiraiya gave up a bit inside, though he remained impassive on the outside. "**Sexy Jutsu: Icha Icha Paradise!**" The name alone was enough to shock Jiraiya out of his internal musings, and he looked intently at the smoke cloud, confused as to what had just happened. Jiraiya could have sworn that it was the transformation technique, but an original jutsu was infinitely more impressive.

The smoke cleared to reveal a buxom blonde striking an incredibly sexy pose and wearing a bit of incredibly revealing lingerie. The sex appeal alone was enough to almost send the self-proclaimed super pervert spiraling into a blissful unconsciousness, but he had a duty to evaluate these kids. He couldn't afford to pass out on the job. Forcing himself to stay focused, Jiraiya got another look at the beauty in front of him.

Then it hit him. This was familiar. The lingerie and pose were straight out of his most recent book. It had taken him a second to recognize it, since the heroine and the woman she was based on was a brunette, but it was undeniably from his books. Unable to take it anymore, Jiraiya succumbed to the spray of blood from his nose that left him passed out on the floor in a pool of his own blood, wearing a massive grin on his face.

"Are you OK?" shouted Naruto as he transformed back into his prepubescent body. He was stopped from approaching the downed Sannin by a masked ANBU who appeared in a cloud of smoke between him and Jiraiya.

"No need to worry. I'll take it from here." said the ANBU member calmly from behind his mask. "You just head back to the waiting room." Naruto knew better than to argue with an ANBU member, and sulked out the entrance to the room, casting a glance over his shoulder at the ANBU member throwing the Sannin over his shoulder and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

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"So, an Academy student managed to send the gallant Jiraiya to the hospital? I'm almost ashamed to be a member of your team." said Orochimaru as he visited his teammate in the hospital.

"Actually, Tsunade sent me her after an ANBU member dragged me to her for resuscitation. I'd have been fine, but I answered a bit too honestly when she asked what had knocked me out." admitted Jiraiya sheepishly. "On the plus side, I should be able to get my apprentice's name to Sensei by the end of the day once I get out of here. What about you? Got your student singled out from all the applicants?"

"Kukuku, as if I would let my apprentice be decided by the showing of a single day. I've been whittling down a potential list of candidates since day one. I've actually had my apprentice selection in last week." said Orochimaru, smiling smugly at his preparedness.

"Well, you always were the genius. I prefer to go more on gut feeling. So who gets to inherit your creepiness?" asked Jiraiya jokingly, wincing as he sat up. "I plan on training the kid who started the dominoes that landed me here. It wasn't as showy as others, but it was an original twist on an old classic. And I can teach him all the showy jutsu in the world, it's up to him to make sure they don't go to waste."

"The choice was rather obvious once I began to employ some harsher requirements. Forbidden jutsu require a massive chakra capacity, the ability to get back up after something goes wrong, and a unique perspective on the world." said Orochimaru.

"Well, let's have a name." goaded Jiraiya. "Who's going to be Naruto Uzumaki's rival?"

Orochimaru's golden eyes widened at the name, before he nervously swallowed. "We… might just have a problem."

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Naruto sat at the counter of Ichiraku's sulking. The official selections had yet to be announced tomorrow, but he was certain he had failed. There was no way Jiraiya would select a student who had humiliated him with such a simple technique when he could select someone who knew how to spit fireballs, as Naruto had later found out Sasuke could. It suddenly made Sasuke a little more likeable. Only a little though.

"Something got you down?" asked Ichiraku as he placed a large bowl of ramen down in front of Naruto. Naruto had planned on eating this for the past few days, either as a celebration or a pick-me-up. Unfortunately it was the latter, and Ichiraku could pick up on his favorite customer's mood.

"Nah, I'm just not feeling good about the Sannin test thingy." said Naruto glumly around a mouth full of noodles. Ichiraku nodded sagely and grunted in acknowledgement.

"Well, you know Naruto, three ninja became Hokage without being trained by the Sannin, and even the Fourth graduated like the rest of them. Besides, you're probably just being a little hard on yourself." said Ichiraku, as another customer came in. "What can I get for you sir?"

The dark haired man brushed his long hair out of the way of his golden eyes. "I'll just have whatever he's having." he said, gesturing to Naruto. "I couldn't help but overhear, and I must disagree. You might be being a bit harsh on yourself, but the Sannin are going to be harsher in their selection than you could imagine. They'll accept only the best."

Naruto's mood deflated instantly, and the man seemed taken aback by the change in attitude. "Of course, they can't have such high standards that they're unreachable. I'm sure you stand a fighting chance."

"You really think so?" asked Naruto hopefully. "I mean, all I did was the transformation technique. Sasuke spit fire. Fire! How am I supposed to compete with that!?" he asked, throwing his hands up in the air.

The ninja looked around to make sure nobody was looking or listening, before leaning in close to Naruto. "If you really want to cinch it, there's a secret test nobody's been told about."

Naruto looked at him skeptically. "Why would there be a test nobody knows about? And if nobody knows about it, how come you know?"

"Kukuku. I'm a test proctor, charged by the Sannin themselves to select prospective candidates. And you fit the bill. You can think of it as a second round for the few selected to move on." explained the man. "All you have to do is learn a jutsu from one of the Hokage's scrolls by the end of the night."

Naruto's eyes began to sparkle with determination. "Really? All I have to do is learn a jutsu? If that's what it takes, that's what I'll do!" Naruto got up and ran out of the ramen stand, got about ten feet before turning around and running back to stick his head back in. "Thanks mister! And thanks for the ramen old man Ichiraku!"

Teuchi turned around at Naruto's shout. "Wait a second Naruto! You didn't pay!" he yelled in vain, but Naruto was already gone. Teuchi sighed. "Whatever, I'll just get it from him next time. Sorry for the wait, here's your order."

"Thank you." said the dark haired man as he snapped his chopsticks in half to dig in. "I'll foot the bill for my energetic little friend as well. I'm feeling particularly generous today."

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Naruto had honestly been expecting more difficulty with this secret test. There hadn't been any ANBU at the Hokage's residence, not that that was surprising. They were never seen if they didn't want to be, and the Hokage was perfectly capable of fending off anyone he didn't want in his house. But the Third Hokage himself had either missed or ignored the silent alarms that went off the moment Naruto stepped onto the property, and Naruto had made out with the largest scroll he could find. After all, if it was big, it had to be important.

Naruto retreated to the woods around the village, figuring that his own home would be a bad place to start spitting fireballs. Naruto cracked open the scroll to look at the contents, and was terrified to see that he had apparently grabbed a scroll of forbidden jutsu. Naruto shook his head, realizing he couldn't go back and get a different scroll, and began looking for any jutsu that didn't kill the user or everything in a mile radius.

"Alright Shadow Clones, I will make you mine, and you will hopefully not kill me." he muttered Naruto as he zeroed in on his target. His class hadn't even begun the Clone jutsu yet, but how hard could it be? Several hours later into the night, and the answer was apparently found to be very hard. Making the seal one more time, Naruto poured as much chakra as he could into the technique. The resulting cloud of smoke cleared to reveal a Naruto equally as tired as the original, but in no way deformed, pale, or intangible like all previous attempts.

"Very good." said a familiar voice, as the dark haired man from before emerged from the woods, slowly clapping his hands. "That's a very steep learning curve there. Care to hand over the scroll?"

"Depends." said Naruto as he tried not to stagger sideways from exhaustion. "Did I pass?"

"Kukuku. Foolish boy, there was never a 'secret test'. It was a ruse to lure both you and the scroll away from the village where I could make a hasty retreat to the Hidden Rock." laughed the man, as he discarded the Hidden Leaf headband on his forehead and donned one bearing the emblem of the Hidden Rock Village.

"What!" exclaimed Naruto as he and his clone took a step backwards. "Why me? What did I do?"

"The scroll full of forbidden jutsu should be enough, but jinchuriki are even more valuable bargaining chips when defecting." Seeing the confused look on Naruto's face, the man laughed again. "Kukuku, that's right. They never told you, did they?"

"Told me what?" asked Naruto, not really sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Foolish boy. Jinchuriki are those who hold back the Tailed Beasts. You have the Nine Tailed Fox sealed within you. Right now, it lays dormant, but with training, you could become the most devastating ninja to ever live. So you can join me, or I can take you by force."

Naruto's hands lay limp at his sides as he tried to process the information. "So… that's why… they all look at me like that?" he asked slowly.

"I'd imagine so." said the man, inspecting his fingernails nonchalantly. "So which will it be? Willingly defect, or forcefully be taken? The only difference in the result is where your loyalties will lie."

"I might not like this whole Nine Tailed thing, but if you think I'm defecting form the Leaf because of that, YOU'RE CRAZY!" he shouted, causing the old man to raise an eyebrow. "**SHADOW CLONE TECHNIQUE!**" A massive cloud of smoke enveloped the clearing, revealing an uncountable number of Naruto clones that all descended on the man standing calmly in the middle. Their fists connected successfully time and again, and in minutes the previously confident defector was lying on the ground, barely able to keep breathing.

Naruto dismissed his clones and grinned at his victory, but the smile faded when the man began to turn brown and fall apart like he was made of mud. Naruto felt a sharp impact on the back of his neck before he fell into unconsciousness.

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"The hell did you do to him!?" shouted Tsunade, devoting as little attention to healing the blonde in front of her as she could and be successful. "You were just supposed to test him!"

Orochimaru shrugged. "I hold my apprentice to a higher standard. It's not my fault forbidden jutsu are more difficult to test for than keeping a fish alive out of water for a few minutes."

The Third Hokage spoke up, stopping the argument. "Regardless, Naruto will be fine, and you have all selected your pupils, even if Orochimaru's test was a little… unorthodox. We will announce the results tomorrow at the Academy. I assume he will up and about before then?"

Tsunade stopped using the Mystic Palm technique to look at her sensei. "We all know he'd be fine without my help, and we all know why. Including him, now." The last part was accompanied with a sharp glare at Orochimaru.

The Third Hokage sighed heavily. "I too wish you had been a little more… tactful with the information." Orochimaru shrugged once more, this time with a smug grin.

"He was going to find out eventually. This way I managed to test both skill, determination, and loyalty to the village in the face of adversity. What more could you want?" he asked rhetorically.

"I'll want you to answer his questions tomorrow after the announcements and apologize for your heavy-handed methods." Orochimaru nodded, and the Hokage turned to his third student. "And Jiraiya! Stop sulking in the corner like that. It's downright depressing."

Jiraiya looked up solemnly. "It's just not fair Orochimaru gets him. I had dibs!"

Orochimaru leaned onto his teammate, grinning like a cat that had caught a mouse. "I had dibs for half a month. No my fault you didn't think to even look at the prospects until the day of auditions. I didn't even need to waste my time with one of those."

"Alright!" said the Hokage loudly, hoping to derail another argument. "You should all rest up, since I expect you to start training your new apprentice's tomorrow. And Orochimaru? Start slow with the boy. Use a pig or something."

"I planned to. Human corpses are valuable, if not exactly rare." said Orochimaru as he exited the office.

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Naruto woke the next morning in his own bed, feeling more well rested than he had in months. He briefly wondered if last night had really happened, then decided to test whether or not it had, bringing his fingers up into the crossed seal he had practiced for hours yesterday. If the events of yesterday really had been a dream of some sort, then absolutely nothing should happen. But if a clone popped into existence, then the events would be undeniably true.

Sure enough, one cloud of smoke later, and Naruto was looking at an exact replica of himself. The two Naruto's sighed in unison as the truth hit home, and they both sat down on Naruto's bed, shoulders sagging. "Well it's awesome that I know how to do this, but what the hell happened last night?" said Naruto, before growling his frustrations at the sky.

"Well, that spy person turned into mud, and then you collapsed." Naruto sat up, confused for a moment before remembering that the clone was there. "So I'm as clueless as you as to what exactly happened after that. Who knows what happened to the scroll, or that jerk spy, or you for that matter." lamented the clone.

Naruto groaned once more. "I'm going to be in so much trouble with the old man." The clone seemed just as distraught by the knowledge that they had let down the one person who really liked him in the entire village.

"Maybe he won't notice?" suggested the clone, wincing at his own forced optimism. "I mean, did you see how many scrolls he had? What's one more?" The clone looked around, before his eyes widened in panic. "Though if you want things to just blow over, you have to get to the Academy, ASAP!" The clone got up, and grabbed ahold of Naruto's arm, pulling before the latter could figure out what the clone was doing.

As Naruto stumbled up, the clone's grip slipped, and he fell backwards. Struggling and failing to keep his balance, the clone slipped and bashed his head on the corner of the dresser, exploding into a cloud of smoke at the sharp contact. Naruto winced at the clone's destruction and rubbed his head at the phantom pains. "Yikes, I felt that." said Naruto, chalking it up to a great sense of empathy for the clone that had effectively died in front of him.

Still, the late shadow clone had made a good point, any more contemplation about the issue would make him late for school, on the one day something interesting had a chance of happening. Even if he wasn't picked to be an apprentice of the Sannin, it would be interesting to see who was at the very least.

Bolting out the door, Naruto sprinted down the street in an effort to make it on time. He skidded through the door of the classroom just seconds before the bell rang, earning an annoyed look from Iruka for his close call. "Glad you could make it, Naruto. Take your seat, and we can finally get started." Naruto sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of his neck as he grabbed an available seat and sat down. Iruka cleared his throat and looked down at his itinerary. "Now then, the Hokage will be along by the end of the hour with the Sannin themselves to announce the results I'm sure you're all eager to hear, so we'll make the time until then a free period. Feel free to brush up on your clone technique, because there will be a quiz on it later today."

The class celebrated at the news of a free period, though an unspoken agreement kept the overall noise level down in fear of earning Iruka's ire and ruining it. The student broke off into smaller groups of friends around the room to study, gossip, or just hang out. Naruto finally spared a moment to look around to see who had sat down next to. "What a drag. I can't believe we're having another test today. I could have sworn we just had one last week."

"We could always skip out if you want to. Not that it matters, since I'll be gone by the end of the hour with my new sensei." bragged Naruto, though his boasts were more bluster than substance if he had the courage to admit it to himself.

Shikamaru scoffed, but the effect was lost as he transitioned to a yawn halfway through. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll have to pull out a C to keep my mom off my back. Troublesome. Wake me when something interesting happens." With that, the Nara boy folded him arms on the desk in front of him as a makeshift pillow as he drifted to sleep.

"Nice talking with you, Shikamaru." muttered Naruto, though the sarcasm fell on deaf ears. Or rather, it fell on sleeping ears. Naruto took another look around the room, determined not to spend up to an hour in silence. His eyes naturally gravitated towards the largest group in the room, which turned out to be the mass of girls milling around Sasuke, who was doing nothing but staring intently at the front of the room, as if it held the answers to life. All that was on the board was the date, April 2nd. Naruto got up and stalked over to the group.

Sasuke sat, trying to ignore the screeching voices around him. His method of pretending they didn't exist worked well enough as long as he kept looking straight ahead as if the board held the answers to life itself. None of his self-proclaimed "fans" would get in his way as long as it looked like he was doing something he wanted to do. The few times people tried to force eye contact didn't last lost. Even without the famed Sharingan of the Uchiha clan, his glare was plenty intimidating enough for an Academy student.

He instinctively narrowed his eyes to scare off the newcomer who suddenly appeared in his field of vision before he even registered who it was. Naruto took the glare as a challenge, and perched himself on the desk to get as close to the Uchiha as he could to return the glare. It took all of Sasuke's willpower not to show any expression, even though he wanted to sigh in frustration and bury his face in his hands. The girls around him began to voice their complaints at Naruto's proximity to the focus of their praise, but Sasuke had shown no wish for them to interfere and was perfectly capable of getting rid of the dead last by himself, so they all stood by, even falling into silence after a while.

The glaring contest continued, drawing the attention of the rest of the class. Interested in the commotion behind him, the student in the row directly in front of Sasuke stood up to turn around. In doing so, he bumped the orange clad student who was unexpectedly squatting on the desk above him. Naruto's arms wheeled in vain as he tried desperately to regain his balance. Sasuke's eyes opened wide in surprise and horror as Naruto fell forward. Sasuke tried to get out of the way to avoid the inevitable collision, but only resulted in moving the site of impact. If he had stayed unflinching, Sasuke would have gotten a nasty bump on the head, but since he had pulled away, the part of his head that made contact with Naruto was a bit… further down.

The girls looked on at the lip lock in horror. It was fortunate that all attention was on the two rivals who were busy trying to find a wire brush to scour their mouths with, as nobody could attest to any blushing that may or may not have occurred. Any vengeance for Sasuke's first kiss was put on hold by some high pitched laughter from the front of the room. "Kukuku. Perhaps you could use that in your next book Jiraiya. It can't do much worse than your first horrendous attempt at literature."

Scarred as he was, Jiraiya's voice was barely more than a whisper. "S-shut up." Tsunade sighed in irritation as she walked up to the group of girls that were now looking at the Sannin in wonder.

"You're with me." she said tersely, literally grabbing Sakura by the arm and dragging her out of the room. By the time anyone realized what had just happened, the two were already out the door.

"Well then." said Jiraiya, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Tsunade didn't do a great job of explaining it, but we're here to pick up our selections. Now then, Sasuke Uchiha, you'll be my apprentice, don't let me down! Test one, find me!" Near the end, Jiraiya regained his usual bluster and bravado before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Sasuke's eyes widened before he jumped out the window in a hurry.

Naruto sagged in his seat when Jiraiya announced that Sasuke had beaten him out. He suddenly shot up as a hand was placed on his shoulder. "Don't count yourself out yet, you'll be getting instruction from yours truly." Naruto looked up to Orochimaru, who made a hand seal before they both disappeared in a puff of smoke.

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**A/N: First chapter is up! Wooo! This is my new story, where updates will be sparse, so follow so you know when I get around to updating. Just like with my other story, the goal is to introduce as many original ideas as I can into the fandom, so feel free to use any ideas you want to as long as you credit me. I'll just shamelessly plug my previous fic one last time, since it should be finished at the same time assuming everything worked, so check it out if you haven't read it already. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and reviews are always appreciated! See ya!**

**Edit: Just some grammar error fixes and such. Changed some wording to make certain sentences less confusing/more interesting. Nothing major.**


	2. Chapter 2

The Sannin's Apprentice

Chapter 2

"Gah, what the hell?" shouted Naruto when he reappeared on the roof of the Academy. Orochimaru removed his hand from Naruto's shoulder and walked around the baffled former-Academy student. "YOU picked me? But I didn't even take your test!"

"You didn't get the choice to opt out." said Orochimaru as he formed a simple hand seal. One puff of smoke later, and the same spy from the night before was in the Sannin's place. "You were the only one who met my criteria, so I decided to give you a little test. If you couldn't tell, you've passed."

Naruto was silent until Orochimaru resumed his form in a cloud of smoke. "So what made me the best choice? I didn't know any cool jutsu until last night, and even that's just some stupid clone thing."

"Kukuku. That 'stupid clone thing' is a forbidden technique that's hard for most chunin to pull off at all, and most jonin can't manage more than three or four at a time without being completely exhausted." explained Orochimaru. "It may have made your chakra control worse than a baby's but having that fox sealed in you has given you chakra reserves that even I'll be envious of in a few years. In short, you are wasted on anything but the most chakra intensive of jutsu, and those forbidden techniques are my specialty."

Naruto's spirits sank at the mention of the Nine Tailed Fox, and he heaved a great sigh. "I was kind of hoping the fox was a lie."

"Tch, you should be glad it isn't." replied Orochimaru tersely. "Jinchuriki such as yourself are always destined to be powerful ninja. The Three Tails' jinchuriki actually managed…" it was here that Orochimaru found himself interrupted quite rudely by his new apprentice.

"Wait, there are other people with demons sealed inside them?!" asked Naruto quite loudly. Orochimaru wasn't one to tolerate interruptions from those that he could kill with a look though, and smacked Naruto on the back of the head before continuing.

"Don't interrupt me." he said as Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "And they aren't demons, they're called Tailed Beasts. There are nine of them, including yourself, each with a different number of tails ranging from one to nine. The more tails, the stronger the beast, though all are on par with an army on ninja. They can change the course of not just battles, but entire wars as well. Judging nothing but potential, you are the strongest ninja alive."

Naruto's blue eyes were alight with dreams of walking across a war torn battlefield, standing alone as the undisputedly most badass ninja on the planet before Orochimaru continued. "As for actual prowess, that title likely goes to the Third Hokage. I'm here to see that your potential isn't squandered like every other jinchuriki."

After waiting a second to make sure Orochimaru wouldn't be interrupted, Naruto posed the question that had leapt to the front of his mind. "Wait, the other jinchuriki aren't super awesome? You just said they changed the effects of entire battles, sometimes wars."

"True enough. A common tactic used by jinchuriki is to directly channel their Tailed Beast. Those with enough control are capable of actually transforming into the creature itself for a time. However, the greatest achievement of any jinchuriki is the current container of the Three Tails, who managed to become the Mizukage." Seeing Naruto's confusion, Orochimaru elaborated. "The Hokage of the Hidden Mist Village is called the Mizukage. And do you know how many stories there are of the Mizukage transforming?"

Naruto's face scrunched up in concentration as he contemplated the question for a moment. "I don't know, twelve?" he finally offered up.

"None" said Orochimaru simply. "The Tailed Beasts are sealed into jinchuriki after being defeated by ninja who don't have the advantage of vast pools of chakra. They win with cunning, numbers, or powerful techniques that often kill the user with the chakra requirements. Now imagine a jinchuriki who uses the techniques capable of defeating opponents with more raw power when he himself has no equal in raw power. You are likely capable of using forbidden jutsu even I'd think twice about using like they are nothing."

Naruto's eyes opened from an intense session of thinking. "So I'll use the Tailed Beast without fighting like it?"

Orochimaru grinned. Perhaps his blockheaded apprentice wasn't so hopeless after all. "Kukuku. That's correct. Now let's work on some teamwork. I'm not sure if Jiraiya is playing fair." Orochimaru leapt off the roof to the ground below as Naruto watched from above in awe before panicking when he realized he needed to be following the Sannin. Naruto got a running start before jumping into the tree nearby and scurrying down it to reach his mentor. Orochimaru was pleasantly surprised that he wouldn't have to wait for Naruto to walk down the stairs and also perplexed that a student would even attempt that. One way or another, this would be interesting to say the least.

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Sasuke was the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan. And as the last Uchiha, it was up to him to carry on everything about the clan. He could wait for his Sharingan, at least a bit longer, and he refused to start a family until Itachi was dead. He refused to go through that loss a second time, or entertain the thought of him losing their eventual rematch. But the one thing he could carry on was the pride of the Uchiha clan. And a truly proud Uchiha wouldn't dare stop and ask for directions. Maybe the pride of a single Uchiha could compromise enough, but not the pride of the entire clan.

While this mentality was great for maintaining the dignity of the once great clan that had been reduced to a single boy, it made finding Jiraiya much harder. No one was likely to offer him the Sannin's whereabouts without being asked first, so Sasuke had to run through the streets, looking for the vibrant red outfit and long white hair. While he didn't have the Sharingan yet, Sasuke did remember how to sense a transformation in effect, so the toad sage wouldn't avoid him that easily.

The act of running, looking, and sensing didn't require too much thought though, which left Sasuke plenty of time to plan ahead as he looked for Jiraiya. Being trained by a Sannin would accelerate him towards Itachi even more quickly than he had planned originally, so he had to reevaluate his meticulous plan. He would definitely be stronger for this, but the biggest alteration was the guarantee of strong teammates.

The teams assigned by the Academy wouldn't give him teammates of his level, but the Sannin wouldn't accept hopeless cases. Even if they did, training under a Sannin would make anyone strong enough to help him fight Itachi. Which led to an uncomfortable question. Before this, he had accepted that he would have to fight Itachi alone, but now that the option of help was a possibility, did he want it?

Itachi had committed horrible crimes, and needed to be killed by any means possible. But on the other hand, Sasuke was the sole surviving member of the Uchiha clan. It was his revenge. And if he got too close to his teammates, the temptation of the Mangekyo Sharingan might become too much for him to resist. Sasuke didn't want to become Itachi in his quest for vengeance. The Mangekyo was a last resort, if a resort at all.

Grimacing at Jiraiya's apparent skill at hiding despite his over the top garb and attitude, Sasuke turned down another random street, looking left and right for his new mentor. The one place he wasn't looking was straight ahead and down though, and he practically tripped over a smaller child in front of him. Unable to stop his forward momentum, Sasuke caught himself with one hand and sprung onto his feet to avoid face planting in the middle of the street. In addition to being painful and unnecessary, Sasuke had the pride of the Uchiha clan to consider.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" demanded the child that Sasuke had fallen over. Not deigning to respond to the annoying kid, Sasuke settled for a sharp glare before continuing his search. The look didn't carry the weight Sasuke had intended apparently, as the kid kept following him. "Hey, listen! You need to apologize for almost running me over! Don't you know who I am?"

Unable to find Jiraiya, Sasuke decided to vent some of his frustration on this kid who was apparently famous. "No, I don't know, nor do I have the time and inclination to learn." he said, while trying his best to imitate the look all Uchiha could give to make their foes crumple like paper.

"W-well I don't care if you don't have time or inflammation! I'm Konohamaru, and you'd better remember it!" the boy, apparently named Konohamaru, declared while puffing out his chest in an attempt to seem more confident than he actually was. Sasuke didn't even need the Sharingan to see that it was all bluster.

"Konohamaru? Like the village?" asked Sasuke, letting his tone say what he thought of the name. Konohamaru was oblivious to the subtle inflection in Sasuke's voice though, and puffed out his chest proudly.

"Yep, like the village!" he affirmed happily. "So you don't have an excuse to go forgetting it. Just call me Konohamaru, nothing else!" Sasuke groaned silently at how oblivious this kid was. Realizing he wouldn't get anywhere with Konohamaru, Sasuke started to just walk away.

Unfortunately, the last Uchiha made the mistake of making a parting comment as he left. "I don't have time for this, I need to find him." Although the second half of that sentence was mumbled under his breath, Konohamaru apparently heard it loud and clear.

"You're looking for someone? Who is it?" he asked inquisitively. "I've been on the lookout for my teacher since I'm technically supposed to be in school right now, so maybe I've seen them." Sasuke looked at Konohamaru, skeptical about how happy he seemed about skipping school. But then again, declining offers of help would be rude, and as heir to the Uchiha clan, Sasuke would need to work on his diplomatic skills. And diplomacy boiled down to not being rude.

"Long white ponytail, bright red clothes, weird sandals." said Sasuke quickly, giving a brief description of the most memorable parts of Jiraiya's absurd outfit.

Konohamaru's face scrunched up in deep thought while he tried to remember why that sounded familiar. Just as he recalled where he had seen those things before, a loud voice shouted from the end of the street. "There you are, Honorable Grandson! It's time to resume your lessons, otherwise you'll never achieve your dream as quickly as you could with my help!"

The ninja running down the street seemed nondescript enough, save for a bandanna in place of his headband and a pair of sunglasses, but his appearance sent Konohamaru into a panic. "Crap, Ebisu found me! I gotta go! Check by the hot springs if you're looking for that Jiraiba guy!" he shouted as he ran down the street away from his tutor. Sasuke's brain quickly realized that 'Jiraiba' was likely Jiraiya. Even if it wasn't it was a better lead than just running around the Hidden Leaf Village at random.

Ebisu was probably going to catch Konohamaru, a fate sealed by the kid tripping on his ridiculously long scarf as he tried to make good his escape. Sasuke decided to pay back the favor for the lead to Jiraiya, figuring that since he didn't have a flak jacket, this Ebisu was likely just some no-talent genin sent to round up a wayward student, so there was no danger in getting on his bad side. The fact that simply sticking his foot out was enough to send Ebisu sprawling cemented the fact that he was no one to be worried by. Ebisu found his feet, but not before Konohamaru had made good his escape. Annoyed by his failure, Ebisu turned to Sasuke angrily.

"I demand to know why you tripped me! I'm on important business for the…" Sasuke cut off Ebisu's demands with a sharp look. It felt good to know that it had just been Konohamaru not being affected by the Uchiha glare, and that Sasuke hadn't lost his edge.

Replying in his best monotone, Sasuke started to walk away. "You tripped over your own feet. How clumsy." Before Ebisu could reply, Sasuke had strolled casually around the corner before breaking into a sprint the moment Ebisu could no longer see him. That lead at the hot springs could go cold, and even if it wasn't time sensitive, the sooner he found Jiraiya the sooner he could begin training. And the sooner he began training, the sooner he would get stronger.

'_And the sooner I get stronger…_' though Sasuke, trailing off before his thoughts led him to thinking about Itachi. Dwelling on the past and the future wouldn't help him in the now. Though he did begin to run just a bit faster.

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Sakura wasn't a person who enjoyed silence, but she was willing to make some sacrifices to avoid annoying Tsunade more than she was already. They had been walking for a while now with no clear objective than to keep going forward. After a short time, Tsunade turned to look at Sakura with a glare that could curdle milk. The pink haired apprentice tried to keep her nervous smile as natural looking as possible, but figured that she had probably failed miserably.

Tsunade then looked around at the surrounding shops and building before stalking into one that appeared to be a bar. Having no real choice, Sakura followed her new mentor into the building that was most definitely a bar, although a mostly empty one on account of it being ten in the morning on a Tuesday. Sitting down, Tsunade first spoke to the bartender, who was busy cleaning, obviously not expecting to have customers. "I'll take a bottle of sake, I don't care how good it is, as long as it has alcohol." Tsunade looked over at Sakura, who had nervously sat down next to the Sannin, and amended her order. "Make that two."

The barkeeper slowly walked over to his unorthodox customers and got them two bottles of sake before returning to his broom. Tsunade poured herself a saucer of sake and downed it immediately, poured another and turned to Sakura. "Do you know what my specialty is?"

Sakura sputtered as she tried to collect her thoughts into coherent sentences. "Y-you're a medical ninja. Th-the best! M-medical ninja, that is." She stuttered out as Tsunade downed another saucer of sake.

"Damn right. And what does that make you?" she asked, taking another drink.

"A… medical ninja?" said Sakura, venturing a tentative guess. A guess that was apparently wrong, if Tsunade leaving a small crater in the bar was anything to go by.

"You think being my apprentice makes you a medical ninja?" said Tsunade loudly. It would have likely attracted the attention of the other patrons had there been any. Most villages, including this one, won't consider you a medical ninja until you've undergone years of training! And I won't accept you as a true fellow medical ninja until the fourth law applies to you!"

Sakura's instincts were screaming at her to stay quiet, but curiosity beat instinct to the punch. "The… fourth law? What are you talking about?"

Tsunade's response was dangerously calm. "Law one of the medical ninja: No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end. Law two: No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines. Law three: No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon. And law four: Only those medic ninja who have mastered the Strength of a Hundred Technique of the ninja art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws."

Sakura sat there in thought, trying to process the great deal of information that Tsunade had just thrown at her. As the realization of what those laws meant dawned on her, Tsunade spoke again, more sad than angry this time. "Those last techniques are known only by me, and require a great deal of skill and training to use. Until you master them, if you even can, you must not interfere if you're comrades are about to be wounded. You'll have to treat them afterwards, and if you aren't good enough, you'll have to be right beside them as they die, one by one."

Tsunade looked over to see the look of horror on Sakura's face, and was glad that her message had the intended effect. "You're the most important member of this team, and you're job is the hardest. I'll prepare you for it the best I can, but if you don't feel like you can handle this responsibility, I'll go back to the Academy and try the next best candidate. So you tell me, should I bother training you, or is it a waste of my time?"

Sakura's mind was reeling and racing at the same time. Her responsibility would be standing around and staying safe until her teammates' lives were on the line, and then if she messed up, they would die. Just the thought of Sasuke dying was almost enough to send her into tears, and even though she didn't like Naruto a lot, she didn't want him to die! Sakura wasn't sure if she could handle the responsibility of being a medical ninja, but there was one thing she had to know before she could make her decision. Looking up at Tsunade's questioning gaze, Sakura solemnly asked the one question that could either relieve or justify her doubts. "Why did you pick me? What made me the best candidate?"

"Honestly, your chakra control was the best out of all the kids I tested." Tsunade shrugged. "A lot of being a medical ninja is dedication and attitude, but on a technical level you were the best. Still god awful though, but the potential is there." Sakura nodded slowly as her mind wrapped around the new information.

She was the best candidate. Not Ino. Her. If she stepped down, passed up on this chance because the pressure was too great, someone less able would take over. And if Sasuke, or anyone else for that matter, died as a result, Sakura wouldn't be able to live with herself. Green eyes full of determination, Sakura looked Tsunade right in the eye. "I'll do it. I'll surpass even you, and I don't care how long or hard I have to work at it. And I won't let any of my comrades die!"

Tsunade grinned. "A good goal to have. Unachievable, but good nonetheless." The Slug Princess stood up, grabbing her half-drunk bottle of sake as she did. "Let's get down to business then, brat. You've got a lot to learn, and no time to learn it. We're headed to the library." Tsunade looked at the unopened bottle of sake that she had purchased for Sakura sadly. "Lem, looks like I won't be needing this one. Can I get a refund?"

The barkeeper, who was apparently named Lem, looked up from his sweeping in irritation. "I haven't charged you since you saved my life. There's nothing to refund, you stingy…" Lem trailed off as he looked at Sakura, deciding that the end of his sentence wasn't child friendly. "Just get out of here, I have cleaning to do!"

As the two left, Tsunade took a swig of sake straight from the bottle and leaned over to Sakura. "One perk of being a medical ninja though. Free sake!"

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Sasuke was furious, and he wasn't sure at who. Jiraiya, for being so hard to find, or Konohamaru, for apparently giving him false information. The last Uchiha had looked everywhere around the hot springs, and unless Jiraiya was inside the girls section of the bath, the Sannin was nowhere around, and Sasuke had lost valuable time.

Just as he was about to give up and go look somewhere else, a rather creepy voice spoke up. "I'm impressed you managed to narrow it down so far in such a little amount of time. You really are genius. But there's one thing you don't know." Sasuke wheeled around to see Orochimaru, followed by Naruto, who grinned and waved. Any other day his greeting would be met with scorn, but today Sasuke tried to be a bit more accepting. The blonde had always been determined, and his strength had been recognized by one of the Sannin. Perhaps Sasuke had missed Naruto actually becoming stronger as a result of his hot headed training.

Oblivious to his thinking, Orochimaru continued. "My teammate… is an idiot, and a pervert." As Sasuke looked on, mind struggling to comprehend what Orochimaru had just said, the Sannin flew through a short series of hand seals faster than the eye could follow and slammed his hand on the to the ground. "**Earth Style: Moving Earth Core**!" A pillar of rock shot out of the ground on the other side of the wall to the hot springs, launching a section of air that seemed vocally opposed to being sent flying.

The disembodied shout landed on the ground with a heavy thud, shimmered a bit, and was revealed to be Jiraiya. Sasuke was first impressed and confused at how Jiraiya had managed to be completely invisible not just to the naked eye but also leaving no trace of chakra, though Sasuke would be willing to admit that he wasn't a dedicated sensor.

"Way to ruin my fun, you snake!" shouted Jiraiya petulantly as he sat up and rubbed his head. Orochimaru seemed a bit exasperated at his teammate's antics.

"Jiraiya, it's ten in the morning on a Tuesday. There was no one in those hot springs to be a subject of your 'research' anyway. Besides, you have a student to train, and it's just plain sad that I knew you'd be ignoring him for this. I had to postpone getting into the details of Naruto's training because of this." said Orochimaru as he began to walk away. "I'll be heading back to the lab to do that now actually, you'd best get to training your apprentice."

As Orochimaru began to walk away, Naruto ran after him, stopping to look back at Sasuke. "You'd better get stronger Sasuke! I won't accept a weak rival, you know?"

Sasuke looked at Jiraiya as the Sannin slowly got up. "So are we going to train now?" he demanded.

"Hold on, hold on! There are too many pretty ladies in the Hidden Leaf for me to concentrate on training you while we're here… so how about we go on a training trip, eh? I'll be able to focus exclusively on passing down my vast knowledge to you. Who knows, maybe I'll have time to get in some research while we're at it." Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion that his mentor might not be as competent as the legends had led him to believe as the Toad Sannin started to walk away while giggling like a schoolgirl. "Well come on Sasuke! We got some training to do!"

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**A/N: Second chapter up! Wooo! From here on out, the story will be focusing on one apprentice's training at a time for a few chapters until I can launch into the big arc I have planned for the maybe middle, maybe end of this fic. There's a poll up to determine how I cycle through them. Winner gets the next chapter mostly to themselves, second place gets the next one, loser get covered third, and then the cycle repeats. Personally, I'm looking forward to writing Jiraiya and Sasuke, but whatever. **

**Some have pointed out that the Sannin are a bit different in this fic. To detail the difference a bit more, here we go. Tsunade basically never developed hemophobia, and the death of her loved ones made her more determined, if a lot more cynical. Since she's still taking missions, she can actually afford to support her gambling and drinking habits. Orochimaru's experiments were brought to the Third's attention early one, when they were still being done on enemies of the village. Sarutobi was convinced to let them continue as long as Orochimaru filled out some paperwork detailing his work and only experimented on enemies of the village, since the possible benefits outweigh the negatives. Jiraiya is pretty much the same. **

**Long A/N, I know, but just one more thing. I'm just going to remind you one last time to follow the story if you're interested, since updates aren't going to be on a frequent schedule. The pace they come out depends on the time I have and the inspiration I can muster. I'm not holding this story ransom or anything, I'd never do that, but reviews and such do wonders to stoke my inspiration. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and reviews are always appreciated! See ya!**

**Edit: Basic spelling, and grammar. Making some sentences less confusing.**


	3. Chapter 3

The Sannin's Apprentice

Chapter 3

Naruto was super excited to begin training, and who could blame him? Orochimaru might not be as cool looking as Jiraiya, or as hot as Tsunade, but he was one of the Legendary Sannin! Not only that, but he believed in Naruto's potential to become the strongest ninja alive. One thing continued to bother him though. "Hey Orochimaru? What exactly is a Forbidden technique?"

Orochimaru kept walking forward, clearly trying to get somewhere, but he was capable of both walking and talking. "You will address me as sensei. But to answer your question, a forbidden technique, or kinjutsu, is a technique that fulfills one of three requirements. Condition one: the technique causes significant harm or death to the user. Condition two: the technique violates the laws of nature and is deemed morally reprehensible. Condition three: the technique is capable of damage deemed inhumane by the five major villages. Any technique, ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu that fulfills even one of these conditions is classified as a forbidden technique."

Naruto was slightly worried about causing himself harm, and violating the laws of nature seemed a little… icky. Out of the three, only the third classification was interesting to him. "What types will I be learning… sensei?" said Naruto, almost forgetting to address his mentor properly.

Orochimaru grinned a bit, though Naruto couldn't see it. "The techniques in the third category are impossibly rare, and using one would be grounds for a war. You won't be learning those. The techniques that violate the laws of nature are usually sealed, but I've been given special permission by the Hokage to teach a few to you. You will NOT use them often, if at all, but you will learn them. The first category will pose little problem to you though. Unless the cost is explicitly your life, the advanced healing and massive pools of chakra you have courtesy of the Nine Tails will minimize the cost. These are techniques like the shadow clones that you've already learned. I'll teach you regular techniques as well, as even basic techniques have their uses."

Naruto nodded, satisfied by Orochimaru's explanation until he noticed something odd about their destination. Rather than walking towards the training grounds, they appeared to be heading towards the hospital. Naruto finally voiced his concern when, instead of stopping at the receptions desk, Orochimaru kept walking without as much as a word to the lady at the administrations desk. "Where are we going?"

Orochimaru explained as he unlocked a door with a good number of hand seals and began to descend the steps beyond. "To my laboratory. Testing Forbidden Jutsu by using them is idiotic at best, so we test them here. I figured I'd wrap the day up with a tour of the facilities the Hokage lets me use and begin training tomorrow." Naruto was a little disheartened to hear that he wouldn't be starting his training today, but tomorrow wasn't bad.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs and another door that was unsealed in the same manner as the first one, though someone with sharper eyes than Naruto would notice that the seals formed were different, the two came to Orochimaru's lab. Large vats full of some sort of liquid lined one side of the long room, some appearing to have human shaped shadows floating in the brightly lit tubes. The other half of the room was lined with shelves and drawers, and Naruto could see smaller jars of the same kind of fluid and small, shapeless lumps. Halfway down the room was a door on either side, presumably leading to other parts of the lab.

The back of the room held the most interesting piece though. Behind a desk littered with papers that Naruto assumed was Orochimaru's was a massive vat of green liquid that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. What made this tube unique was the fact that it was transparent enough to make out what was floating inside. Naruto's jaw dropped at the sight of what appeared to be a giant bull's horn. Seeing his apprentice's expression, Orochimaru chuckled. "Kukuku. The horn of the Eight Tailed Beast, a souvenir of sorts from a particularly successful infiltration mission. I use it to study Tailed Beast chakra in a more controlled environment than releasing one, with varying degrees of success, but it does make a nice decorative piece as well, yes?"

Before Naruto could respond though, one of the doors opened, and a purple haired woman wearing a white lab coat over what appeared to be mesh bodysuit entered, perking up when she saw Orochimaru. "Ah, sensei! I was going to leave this for you to review later, but I can just tell you now if you want. Say, who is this little brat?"

Orochimaru turned to Naruto for introductions. "This is my new apprentice, Naruto. Naruto, this is my first student, Anko." Turning back to Anko, Orochimaru got back to business. "And I'd very much prefer an in person report on whatever it is as opposed to more paperwork. I've begun to see why Sarutobi sensei dislikes it so."

"Haha! Looks like I've got a little junior to pick on now!" Naruto distinctly felt a chill creep up his spine before the crazed looking Anko turned to her sensei. "Anyways, the new Cursed Seals are looking good. They aren't as potent, but the fatality rate should be down to a passable level and they should work well enough as a grounder for the Iburi clan's spontaneous smoking issue. I was going to test the new version's survival rate later today once I got your approval."

Orochimaru raised a hand to his chin and closed his eyes as he processed the new information. "I see. I'll handle the procedure personally, you can head home early today. The sooner Naruto is introduced to the darker side of what we do the better, I suppose."

Anko silently pumped her fist in victory before handing the clipboard off to her sensei as she sprinted out the door. "Alright then, I took the liberty of getting a set of subjects ready. See ya later, brat! I'm looking forward to our first training session!" Oddly enough, her fading maniacal laughter didn't inspire confidence in the orange clad ninja.

"Follow me." said Orochimaru calmly as he walked through one of the doors that shot off from the main lab. As they travelled down the long hallway, Naruto brought something that had been bothering him from Orochimaru's conversation with Anko.

"What did you mean by 'the darker side of what we do' back there sensei?" asked the blonde. Orochimaru took a deep breath and stopped walking before responding.

"I mentioned earlier that testing Forbidden Jutsu on oneself is stupid, if not fatal, yes?" Naruto nodded, vaguely remembering Orochimaru saying something along those lines earlier. "However, theory can only go so far before it has to be tested. Rather than risk our own lives, we risk the lives of those who have no chance in the first place. Criminals on death row, those with incurable diseases who volunteer, people who would die either way. Do you understand?"

Naruto had made the connection about halfway through his master's explanation that instead of running the risk of killing himself, Naruto would have to risk someone else's life. And that thought didn't sit well with him. "What give us the right to decide that they aren't worth saving? What gives us the right to kill them, regardless of what they've done?" Naruto shouted more than asked. "What does all this accomplish anyway?!"

"We don't have that right. The Hokage does, and he's the one who hands down the verdict that these people are beyond help. We simply turn their deaths into sacrifices for betterment of our village. And as for what this accomplishes?" Orochimaru held up the clipboard that Anko had given him earlier. "This experiment is for the Cursed Seal. With any luck, it will stabilize an ability of the Iburi clan. They have the power to turn into smoke at will, but a strong wind threatens to blow them away, unable to live, yet unable to truly die. It is a fate worse than death, and if I have to kill a few criminals instead of a headsman to save them from that fate I will do it with a smile on my face."

Not waiting for Naruto to interject, Orochimaru continued. "The Cursed Seal also acts as a reserve of chakra even for normal ninja. In war, a reserve of chakra is the difference between a victory and defeat. This research could help save the entire village. It isn't a cure, but the seal could also slow the rate at which certain diseases destroy the body. Perhaps long enough to develop a cure and save countless lives. And that's just the Cursed Seal project. The First Hokage's Wood Style was legendary, and then it died out. All hopes of the legendary bloodline returning were abandoned, until I managed to revive it. More people than I can count died for me to get scraping of the Eight Tailed Beast's horn to grow that 'souvenir' you noticed earlier, and thanks to that, I can help you master your own Tailed Beast. These experiments aren't killing the criminals, it's making their deaths save the lives of those they harmed in life. That's why we do this. Do you understand now?"

Naruto broke out of the shock that came from seeing the passion his mentor had for his work. It also appeared to be slightly contagious, as Naruto found himself beginning to understand the reason for his master's zeal for his experiments. "I… can't say I totally agree, but I get it." Naruto put on his best winning smile. "I understand."

Orochimaru smiled, and Naruto would be lying if he said he wasn't a little scared by it. "Kukuku. Good to hear. Now, let's get down to testing out this new Cursed Seal design."

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What followed had been one of the most horrible and surreal experiences of Naruto's life. Orochimaru had injected the ten 'subjects' with a syringe full of some kind of black liquid. The actual experiment hadn't been bad at all. It was what followed that disturbed the boy. The ten men that had been strapped down to the operating tables had started writhing and screaming in pain. One stopped quickly, and Orochimaru rushed over to see what had gone wrong, and whether the man could be saved. He couldn't, and became the first of an eventual four tick marks on Orochimaru's clipboard. Two others almost died, but the Sannin was able to save them from the cold clutches of death.

After the last recipient of the Cursed Seal settled down after thirty of the most hectic minutes on Naruto's life, Orochimaru told him to go home and get a good night's rest, since they'd begin training for real at nine the next morning at Training Ground 1. The apprentice agreed, all too happy to be out of the lab, but trying not to let it show. Deciding to forget about it, at least for a time, Naruto made his way to Ichiraku's for a late dinner of the best ramen in the world.

As Naruto finished ordering his ramen, a welcome guest showed up. "One bowl of miso, please. And I'll cover this one's order too."

Naruto turned to see the familiar scar of his former teacher. "Iruka sensei! What are you doing here?!"

Iruka laughed at Naruto's shock. "Did you really think I'd let my favorite student get selected to train under the best ninja in the village and not congratulate him? I figured if I hung around Ichiraku's long enough you'd show up. Glad to see you're still predictable with your food preferences, if nothing else. And don't call me sensei anymore. You're a fellow ninja of the Hidden Leaf."

"Wait, I am?" asked Naruto, honestly surprised. "I figured I'd be some kind of like, half ninja apprentice thing."

Iruka chuckled again. "Nope, you're a ninja in full. I was given the job of handing these out to you and your new teammates." Iruka pulled out a shiny new forehead protector and handed it to a stunned Naruto as he continued. "I was lucky to get Sasuke his before Lord Jiraiya dragged him off for some training trip or something."

Naruto slid his goggles down around his neck to make room for the new forehead protector without losing them. "Wait, Sasuke already started training?! No fair!" No doubt Naruto would have continued to complain about his eternal rival's head start, but it was then that his ramen arrived. And that was also the moment that a less than welcome guest arrived.

"Hey brat! Ready for your first training session?" Naruto's muscles tensed as his fellow student of Orochimaru shoved Iruka onto the ground and helped herself to his seat. Not looking for any trouble, the teacher got up and took a seat on the other side of his former pupil.

"Orochimaru sensei said we'd be starting training tomorrow." said Naruto between mouthfuls of ramen.

"Sure, that'll be your first training session with _him_. But imagine how surprised he'll be if you show up tomorrow already knowing the basics?" tempted Anko.

"Hey, I know the basics!" argued Naruto, turning to his former teacher for support. "Right Iruka sensei?"

Iruka chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you know the basics… not much else though." Naruto's head jerked forward in disbelief, almost falling into his empty ramen bowl. He turned slack jawed to Iruka, who held his hands up defensively as he backpedalled. "N-not that you don't know some advanced techniques too, it's just that your coverage of the stuff in between is… spotty."

Before Naruto could respond, Anko slapped him heartily on the back, and this time his face did dive into the bowl of ramen, which he had luckily already emptied. "See, so we'll start training now, nothing too hard, just enough to impress Orochimaru sensei!" Anko grabbed Naruto by the back of his jumpsuit and started to drag him away from the ramen stand and towards the training grounds.

Iruka sighed in relief. Though he was a little annoyed at this Anko person for shoving to the ground, she had saved his wallet by stopping Naruto at only one bowl of ramen. If he had let Naruto fill himself up, Iruka would have trouble getting three square meals a day.

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"Alright, first thing's first." said Anko to Naruto, who was grumbling under his breath. "Orochimaru will probably run you over the basics before starting anything new, so let's nail those down before tomorrow. Let's see how well you do with tree climbing."

Naruto wondered why something that simple would be something that might impress Orochimaru, but shrugged it off and turned to the nearest tree. Getting a running start, Naruto jumped and made his way to the top, grabbing branches and jumping as needed to reach the objective with a time that would make any Academy student jealous. Panting slightly, Naruto barely managed to dodge a set of kunai that almost skewered him. The sudden motion threw off his precarious balance and sent the blonde plummeting towards the ground, where he landed hard. "What the hell was that for you psycho!"

"What was that?! What was _THAT?!_" shouted Anko. "Do it again, right this time."

"What do you mean by that?!" shouted Naruto. "What the hell is the 'right' way? I climbed that tree perfectly!"

Anko sighed heavily. "You got no idea, do you? Chakra! That's how you do it right!" Seeing Naruto's confusion, Anko growled in frustration. "Fine! I'll show you the right way!" Anko crossed her arms in a huff and slowly started walking towards the tree. Naruto was confused as to how she intended to climb the tree, until the confusion turned to awe when Anko simply walked up the side of the tree with no heed paid to gravity. "That's the right way! Focus your chakra on the soles of your feet and walk right up! Too much and you crush the bark, too little and you fall off. Get it? Got it? Good! Now do it again!"

Naruto was familiar with chakra from the Academy, but he had no idea that it could have been applied like this. Focusing as much chakra as he could to the soles of his feet, Naruto took off running at the tree, figuring a running start couldn't hurt. The moment his feet connected with the bark though, the tree practically exploded, and Naruto fell to the ground. The blonde was forced to roll out of the way as the tree started to fall down with the weakened trunk unable to support it. Anko was waiting though and pulled him up by the collar of his jumpsuit before turning him towards a new tree. "Again! Less chakra this time!"

Not one to back down from a challenge, Naruto took off running at the new tree, focusing less chakra to his feet this time. The results were similar, the only difference being that the tree withstood the damage and didn't fall over. Anko pulled him off the ground again and the two repeated the process again and again constantly throughout the evening, into the night. Naruto steadily improved, and around midnight, he managed to struggle his way up to the top for the first time. It wasn't enough for Anko though, who insisted he should have been at that level before the training started.

At Anko's insistence, Naruto continued until he could do it, blindfolded, numb, and exhausted for extended periods of time. By the end, Naruto was standing upside down on a thicker branch above a large group of snakes that Anko said would be ready to eat him up if he fell. Naruto was not willing to see if she was bluffing. Finally, as the sun began to peek over the horizon, Anko realized something.

She unsummoned the nest of vipers in a cloud of smoke and shouted up to Naruto, who had entered a sort of half sleep where was aware of things happening, but had stopped associating noises and colors with actual meanings. "Hey brat, when are you supposed to meet Orochimaru sensei?"

Naruto blinked back into full consciousness and thought longer than he would have needed had he been fully rested. "Nine o'clock I think. Why, what time is it?" Naruto looked up, or down rather, and saw the sun beginning to rise. "Gah!" he exclaimed, dropping down from the tree, flipping midair to land on his feet.

"Whoops!" said Anko sheepishly. "Ah, well. See you later today for session two!" Before Naruto could even respond, Anko was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto to find his way to the training ground that Orochimaru had specified.

Naruto spared enough time to groggily pick up some breakfast to eat on the way from his apartment before heading out. On the way, he ran through a mental checklist of the contents of his supply pouches to make sure he wasn't missing anything. After thinking of everything he had yesterday, Naruto realized he was several kunai short. Racking his brain to try and think of where they could have gone, he flashed back to his first attempt to climb a tree 'properly' and the kunai that had brought him back to the ground for the first time of many that night.

"She… she used my own kunai…" said Naruto in disbelief. He'd have to go get them later. Naruto managed to arrive at the first training ground with a yawn four minutes before nine. Four minutes he used to take a far too short nap before Orochimaru arrived. The presence of his sensei woke Naruto up from an intentionally light sleep. The last thing he wanted was for Orochimaru to think he was a slacker.

"Ah, good to see that you're here already." said Orochimaru. "Today I'll just be establishing a baseline for your abilities so I know what to work on going forward. Taijutsu first. Come at me." With that said, Orochimaru slid into a very basic fighting pose. Naruto wasn't one to let his sensei down on the first test, and rushed at him. Orochimaru effortlessly dodged the first punch by simply shifting his upper body and letting Naruto sail past. Leaning forward to catch himself with his hands, Naruto twisted his legs to kick, only for Orochimaru to duck under the blow.

The momentum from the kick brought Naruto's legs back under him until he was on all fours. Springing forward at Orochimaru's back, Naruto went for another punch. This time, Orochimaru jumped over him entirely, and Naruto sailed underneath his mentor and skidded to a halt as Orochimaru landed behind him. Naruto had gone into this sparring match with no real hope of beating a member of the Legendary Sannin, but he had expected to at least make Orochimaru move. Naruto was tempted to use his Shadow Clones, but Orochimaru had said this was a test of his taijutsu, and using ninjutsu like the Shadow Clone Technique would be tantamount to cheating. Scowling, Naruto charged in again. The blonde swung his leg across Orochimaru's waist height, prompting the Snake Sannin to jump over the blow once more. Expecting this, Naruto planted his foot immediately and jumped into the air to give his mentor a good uppercut.

It would have worked, but Orochimaru tilted his head to the side, Naruto's fist brushing past Orochimaru's cheek. Uncrossing his arms, Orochimaru placed a hand on Naruto's chest and shoved the newly minted Genin across the training ground while managing to land in exactly the same spot, having completed the 'fight' without moving an inch. Holding up his hand to signal that the spar was over, Orochimaru delivered the first of many backhanded compliments that Naruto would come to know all too well in future. "Well, at least you're not an invalid. And I won't have to make you forget everything you know to teach you a proper fighting style, so it's not a complete disappointment." e couldn't H

Naruto would have come back with some kind of witty retort, but he was exhausted both physically and mentally, and he decided to just take what he could get. Orochimaru though, decided to get right back to business. "Very well then, let's begin. Now your neutral stance should look like this…"

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**A/N: Third chapter up! Wooo! A few days late, but you can still feel thankful. Naruto will be getting a slow, well explained training from Orochimaru, and late night, get it now or else sessions with Anko. He'll be getting more sleep than he did this chapter, but not too much with Anko giving him her own 'training'. Next up is Sasuke and Jiraiya, which would be coming out in no time at all if finals weren't also coming in no time at all. Oh well. Review time. My last story gave me enough Toad! Naruto for a while, so sorry. Each apprentice will be getting their Masters' Summoning contract… eventually. The whole training arc will only last for the next two chapters or so, so don't worry about the story getting stuck here. I'm way too hyped for what I have planned. I'll give you a hint if you bother to read these, I'm giving an arc from Filler Hell actual canonical importance and bringing in my favorite jinchuriki (other than Naruto). First person to guess it right gets one question answered, no spoilers barred. Boom, Christmas present in case finals eat up more time than I expect. That said, hope you enjoyed, and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


	4. Chapter 4

The Sannin's Apprentice

Chapter 4

Sasuke had been less than impressed with Jiraiya's first impression at the hot springs, but the Sanin had immediately proposed a training trip. That willingness to get down to business was enough to get the last Uchiha to overlook his mentor's shortcomings for the time being. Iruka had bumped into him on his way back to collect his things, handing him a shiny new headband that proudly displayed the symbol of the Hidden Leaf on the metal plate.

Sasuke had it wrapped around his head before he went to meet Jiraiya at the village gates. "Nice headband kid!" said Jiraiya cheerfully when Sasuke showed up with all his supplies in a small knapsack slung over one shoulder. Oddly enough, Jiraiya seemed to be carrying nothing save the large scroll across his lower back. Turning so quickly his long white hair almost smacked Sasuke across the face, the Sannin dramatically pointed toward the horizon. "Onward! To adventure!"

Deciding not to bring up his rapidly sinking opinion of Jiraiya as they began to walk, Sasuke tried to change the subject. "So what will I be learning first?" Jiraiya turned slowly, not breaking stride as he started walking backwards.

"The first lesson will actually be one of the most important you'll ever learn, so we're heading off to get you some 'hands on' experience to ensure you manage to learn them. I'll quiz you afterwards as a test to see if you got it. Flunk this one, and it's back to the Academy for you." Seeing the look of abject terror on Sasuke's face, Jiraiya turned to face forwards once more. Raising a hand to his chin in false contemplation, Jiraiya decided to throw the kid a bone. "Though I suppose I could teach you some basics in the meantime."

Sasuke's face lit up for a brief second, before falling again as his mentor walked face first into a tree. Or he would have, if the Sannin hadn't continued walking straight up the tree as if he was immune to gravity. Jiraiya was quick to see the stunned look on Sasuke's face. "Hahahahaha! Yep, tree climbing has never looked so amazing, has it? This'll be what you work on while we're walking. Just send some chakra to your feet to stick. Not too much, not too little. Don't fall behind though, because I'm not waiting for you."

True to his word, Sasuke could feel the technique sort of work when he tried it. Jiraiya though, was not going to wait any longer than he already was by moving so slowly to get to their destination. After almost getting left behind when he tried to practice right away, Sasuke took to constantly running ahead and trying to climb the tree so that by the time Jiraiya caught up, Sasuke had gotten in an acceptable amount of practice. Slowly, Sasuke began to improve in the technique, able to make it halfway up the tree by the time Jiraiya called him down as the sun began to set.

"Hey brat! I'm setting up camp over there!" shouted Jiraiya, pointing over to a clearing not far off the road. "Keep training if you want, but we're heading out early tomorrow, and I'm not setting up your stuff!" Sasuke's concentration was broken, and he had to twist midair to avoid face planting in the dirt. Sasuke skipped the late dinner that Jiraiya cooked over the campfire, and continued training even when the Sannin had gone to sleep.

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Sasuke continued to press on, getting higher and higher each time out of sheer willpower. If he failed to learn the techniques that came from tree climbing, his chance to catch up to Itachi would vanish like smoke. Training through the night, munching on some ration bars to replenish his strength, Sasuke managed to reach the top of the tree, which wasn't the tallest around, as the sun's light was beginning to brighten the horizon. Jiraiya had said they'd be leaving early, and Sasuke decided to make an impression by waiting at the top of the tree when Jiraiya came out.

Except he never did. Sasuke waited as long as he could, until the sun had not only risen, but progressed almost halfway towards its apex. His patience gone, Sasuke jumped down to wake his mentor. Once again his plans were foiled as Jiraiya stumbled out of his tent with a loud yawn the moment Sasuke hit the ground. "Well, that was a good nap! Let's get going. We need to hurry if I'm going to have time to teach you the most important three things ever. And don't let me catch you climbing trees while we're getting there. You'll need every ounce of energy for the trials that lie ahead."

Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. Part of him was furious, convinced that Jiraiya had been aware of his plan and waited Sasuke out just to ignore him. Part of him wasn't sure if Jiraiya was serious in thinking ten in the morning "early". And a part of him was confused that tree climbing was apparently unrelated to the real test that could potentially ruin what little progress he had made towards his goal. Finally, Sasuke settled on silence as the best course of inaction.

"Here we are, Tanzaku Gai! Honestly, I'm impressed Tsunade would miss this, but get ready to learn your first lesson. What is the first thing any ninja needs to know? To help you answer this question, you'll be getting some hands on experience with…" Jiraiya paused for dramatic effect, continuing once he realized Sasuke was having none of it. Regardless, Jiraiya continued as he was announcing it to an excited stadium, not an unimpressed genin. "THE THREE SHINOBI VICES!"

Sasuke was unable to contain his curiosity, despite every part of his brain screaming to just stab the old man before him. "What are these vice then?"

"Glad you asked!" said Jiraiya, far too cheerfully as he slapped Sasuke heartily on the back and started to walk into town. "The vices are things that can make even a great ninja… less great. They are, in increasing order of enjoyment, money, alcohol, and women!" Sasuke was not surprised at Jiraiya's rankings.

"So how am I supposed to train this?" said Sasuke. "I'm not old enough to drink, and I'm not letting you hire me a hooker or something."

"Of course not!" said Jiraiya, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a decent sum of money. "Here. There's a poker tournament today, and you're taking part, keep anything you win, but you'll be paying me back this exact amount. As for alcohol, well, being a world famous ninja has perks other than being feared by all."

The two approached a building, and the doors opened to reveal a large casino, with people milling about chatting while watching the players 'warm-up' with a few practice hands before the stakes rose dramatically and the tournament started for real. "Excuse me, miss." Said Jiraiya, in his most seductive voice to the young lady at the registrations desk. "One entrance to the tournament."

"Sure thing, gramps." said the girl, blowing a bubble of pink gum while she made a mark on the clipboard, oblivious to Jiraiya's dismayed look. "Name?"

"My apprentice will be entering, not me. Teaching him the ways of the world and such." Jiraiya raised one eyebrow as he continued. "Perhaps I could teach you something of the world. I am said to be quite… experienced."

Sasuke took the clipboard, jotted his name down, smacked his sensei on the back of the head, and handed it back with ease that looked practiced. As he collected his chips, Sasuke didn't notice Jiraiya's scowl. "Ungrateful brat." mumbled the Sannin.

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Sasuke had long ago tried to obtain his Sharingan by practicing the things that it allowed a ninja to do. He had eventually given up on it once he has been informed that only time or life threatening danger could awaken them, but the skills remained to some degree. As a result, he had a passing knowledge of Genjutsu, had read about his clan's history with the Nine Tailed Fox, and most importantly, had gotten very good at tracking where objects were. This last one had been the easiest to practice, trying to follow certain cards as he shuffled a deck. Now that his training future depended on poker, this skill became immediately relevant again.

Sasuke partook in some of the practice hands some other players were doing to try and refresh on the skill and learn how to apply them to poker. It wasn't hard once he grasped the basics, though he lost a pittance of the money Jiraiya had given him early on in an attempt to get his opponents to underestimate him. Once the tournament started though, Sasuke dropped the act that he had based off of his mentor, who was off who knows where, probably harassing some woman or another.

The first hand went by easily, as Sasuke got decent enough hands against other players who had likely never heard the concept of a poker face. He hardly had to rely on his knowledge of what card would be coming next to win. His confidence alone seemed to crush the opposition. The second required a bit more effort, as the players were either too experienced to be cowed by the preteen's confidence and skill, or inexperienced enough to be overconfident themselves after winning the last round. Sasuke folded when he knew he would lose, and stayed in when he knew the cards would favor him. Near the end, Sasuke tried bluffing out the more inexperienced player who had made it through on luck, and had started to lose their confidence with their money. The power of the Uchiha's smirk was mighty indeed.

The third round required more than he had already been doing. The Uchiha had to pick up on the mannerisms of his opponents to know when he could bluff them out, and started to let little moments of nervousness slip to try and overextend his opponents. It wasn't all that different from the idea behind the Uchiha Clan's personal fighting style. Get your opponent to overextend themselves and then counter with devastating power and efficiency. Sadly, the damage Sasuke could do to his fellow poke player seemed to be limited by the lack of punches and Sharingan in the equation at the moment.

After many hours either separating poor people from their money or waiting for other tables to finish doing the same, Sasuke made his way to the final round. His five opponents this time were more belonging than any other he had faced yet, and Sasuke could see that everyone here deserved to be here, save him. A tall lanky man with a snazzy black fedora nodded to him and tipped his hat, seemingly unperturbed about the small child that had been deemed his equal. Another contender with a great beard and moustache cracked his neck in some kind of juvenile attempt to unnerve him. The third seemed bored as he rolled a chip across his fingertips without looking, letting out a yawn. The fourth, a bald man, ignored Sasuke completely as he stared at the table, similar to Sasuke had looked at the board, just days ago in the Academy.

The fifth contender made Sasuke rescind his previous judgment that all the player belonged but him. The young, green haired girl looked at him with orange eyes as if wondering how someone else her age had made it this far into the tournament. Sasuke was wondering the same thing. Before the round began, she reached a tanned arm across the table and held out her hand for Sasuke to shake. Tentatively, he did, and the girl smiled in response. "I'd wish you good luck, but I'm afraid I have all of it." she said, never once dropping that stupid grin. Honestly, it reminded him of Naruto, and he had to work at not sneering. As it was, he remembered the blonde's accomplishments recently, and decided not to underestimate this girl.

She also seemed to be right about her luck comment earlier as well. Sasuke was forced to fold each time, taking minimal losses as the girl was consistently dealt better hands, coming out on top even when one of the other would get a fantastic hand and raise the stakes. Sasuke had lost money on the first turn trying to bluff her better hand, and resolved not to do it again when he noticed that she hadn't even looked at her cards once before putting them down, as if she knew that she would have the better hand.

The players dropped out one by one, the tall hatted man being the first to lose with his rather large raises when he believed he had the hand in the bag. The bearded man's aggressive play style drained him of his chips second. The man who rolled the chip over his fingers the entire game was forced to give up his last chip next, and the pensive bald man's cautious play style removed him from play last. Now that it was just the two of them, the mint haired girl opened her eyes and looked at Sasuke with some level of interest that had been missing earlier. "Looks like you didn't need that luck anyway. I didn't peg you as such an avid player. How are you cheating?"

Sasuke's eyes' widened for a split second at the question asked as one would remark on the weather before he regained composure. He hadn't really thought about what he had been doing as cheating, but in retrospect he supposed it had been on some level. Still, he wasn't about to admit it. "I'm not cheating, I'm just very observant." Now that he thought about it, there was no way the girl had been as lucky as she had been. She must have been cheating somehow as well. "How are you cheating?" he asked with a cocky grin.

The girl giggled before answering. "I'm not cheating either. I'm just luckier than most. Lucky Number Seven never loses a game of chance. You can bet on that."

Sasuke folded once more, realizing that she once again had the best possible hand and wasn't about to admit to cheating. Once the cards were dealt for the next hand, Sasuke noticed that he wouldn't be getting so much as a pair, while the girl would be finishing a pair of aces on the river. Still, she had no way of knowing that, and if he couldn't break her hand, perhaps he could break her confidence. For the first time, instead of folding, Sasuke raised the bet by a significant amount, and the girl's orange eyes widened, before narrowing to look at Sasuke. "What are you up to?" she asked, her voice carrying a sort of condescending tone that one would use with a child that was obviously hiding something.

"A bluff." said Sasuke without any change to his tone. "Or maybe not. I guess I'm just testing your faith in that luck of yours."

That managed to get a chuckle out of his opponent. "You'll be sorely disappointed then. My luck never lets me down."

Sasuke smirked confidently. "Then what's in your hand? Is it something a lucky person would draw? Mine is. Or maybe it isn't. Care to find out?"

This actually gave the girl pause as she stared down at her cards, a four and an ace. There was nothing there, and they both knew it. "Fine then, I know I have the better hand!" she declared confidently. Though Sasuke noticed the look of trepidation as the dealer flipped over the King of Diamonds.

"Fine then, put your money where your mouth is." said Sasuke calmly as he raised once more. The girl seemed nervous, but full of bravado as she matched his recklessness. The dealer turned over the next card, a Ten of Hearts, and the girl's bluster went out the window as her tanned skin paled. Her eyes widened, and Sasuke grinned once more. "Ask yourself this. Are you feeling lucky? Well, are you?" asked Sasuke calmly as he went all in. The girl was sweating bullets at this point, but managed to slide forwards an equal amount. Due to Sasuke's slow losses over the course of the round and her constant victories, she still had some chips left over even once matching Sasuke's all in. The dealer flipped over the river card, revealing an Ace of Clubs, though that didn't calm the girl down any as she placed her cards down, junk save for the Ace of Hearts. "One pair." she said nervously.

Sasuke chuckled under his breath, and smiled sadly. "Three of a kind." He said, holding up the Ace of Diamonds and the Ace of Spades. "Sorry." Sasuke grinned as the dealer slid the massive pile of chips over to his side of the table, reversing their fortunes instantly. It felt good to win. Sasuke's plan to cheat once the girl was too distracted with her own misfortune had worked like a charm. He breathed a small sigh of relief at his foresight in nabbing the two aces from a previous hand in preparation for his trick.

Looking over at her though, Sasuke felt a little bad for the girl. Her confidence had been replaced with an emptiness that almost made Sasuke wince. It was as if that one loss had sucked all the joy she had a moment ago right out of her. The game ended quickly after that, with the girl losing what few chips she had left to the crippling fear that had replaced her well-deserved confidence in her unbeatable luck. Even now, she was getting the better hands, only folding when Sasuke's confidence cowed her into it. She either didn't notice her solid luck, or didn't care.

Once it was over, Sasuke had resolved to go and apologize to her, perhaps even confess to cheating, but Jiraiya descended on him like a vulture on the recently deceased. "I'll admit, I was expecting you to get a taste of it firsthand, but just remember that you could be any one of those loser today, so be careful with your money. No gambling. Now I'll be taking my deposit back, with a little interest maybe." Sasuke would have argued the point of owing interest on money he had 'borrowed' for one whole afternoon, but he was suddenly too tired to care.

"Let's just do whatever you have planned now." It wasn't thanks to Jiraiya, but Sasuke figured it would be a while before he played cards again. Jiraiya clapped him on the back.

"Alright! It was planned as a pick-me-up, but celebratory drinks work even better! I'll save on a hooker and just give you 'The Talk' while we're too drunk to remember it. Hahahahaha!" Jiraiya clapped his apprentice on the back and before the Uchiha knew it, the two were in a bar, and the Sannin was pulling rank to try and get a pint for his underage drinking buddy. The last Uchiha took a large sip, emptying the saucer and almost spit the fire in his mouth right back out. Unable to suppress his grimace, Sasuke nevertheless swallowed the alcohol.

His head began to feel a little lighter, and the crushing guilt from earlier started to alleviate a tad. Jiraiya's cheeks were already flushed as he downed yet another saucer of sake. Sasuke had no clue how much he had drunk while the apprentice was still struggling to down his first saucer. "Now then, alcohol may let you forget your problems, but it can also make you weak, and it doesn't really help." slurred Jiraiya, downing another saucer. "So don't drink too much, ever, ok?"

Sasuke nodded, then shook his head to try and stay aware of himself. Jiraiya nodded sagely. "Alright then, let's talk about women…" Sasuke looked down at the saucer of alcohol, and decided he might actually need a few more before this conversation continued much further.

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Several minutes later, Sasuke was infinitely glad of his decision, or he would be if he wasn't completely plastered as a result of it. Jiraiya stood up, stumbled a bit, and managed to catch himself on the bar. "Alright. Those are the first three, so let's head back to camp." The sentence was barely intelligible, but Sasuke wasn't in much better condition. Some movement akin to walking and much vomiting later, the two arrived at their designated campsite, as grassy hill just outside of town. Unable to make it to the tent, Jiraiya collapsed on the grass, and rolled over to look at the sky. Sasuke quickly followed suit without support from his mentor.

Sasuke wasn't sure when he fell asleep, and he wasn't sure how he managed to fall asleep with anything resembling the splitting headache he had upon waking up. "Oh, god." said Sasuke, gripping his head to try and feel the fatal wound that had to be causing this pain.

Jiraiya tossed his apprentice's knapsack to Sasuke, who failed to react in time to catch it. Sasuke grimaced as the pack fell to the ground. "Rise and shine! We got one last stop to make." said Jiraiya, looking no worse for wear. The two walked all day, Jiraiya constantly talking about his many adventures while Sasuke tried to stay on his feet. Throughout the day, Sasuke's headache got better slightly, though he was still far too grumpy to even attempt to talk back to his mentor.

After another night's rest the hangover was nothing more than a horrible memory, though Sasuke was in no rush to experience that again. On the second day of walking Jiraiya remained almost completely silent, and Sasuke took the opportunity to practice his tree walking some more. They reached their apparent destination as the sun was just beginning to set. "Well, here we are." said Jiraiya. "Are you ready for the question?"

Sasuke took a deep breath to steel himself. "Yes." Jiraiya grinned at his student's eagerness.

"Alright then. What is the most important thing a ninja needs? What is the one thing you'll need to learn before I'll teach you anything?" Sasuke's brow furrowed as he racked his brain for the answer.

Power was the obvious answer, at least to the first question, but it made no sense as the answer to the second one. The reason he was being trained by Jiraiya in the first place was to obtain power. That meant that it was something more metaphorical. Yet despite saying that his training would begin if he answered this question correctly, Jiraiya had already taught him tree walking and the three vices of the ninja. That meant they were likely somehow tied to the answer that Jiraiya was looking for.

Sasuke opened his eyes and answered both Jiraiya's stare and his question. "The most important thing for a ninja to have is control."

The silence that followed was downright oppressive. Sasuke began to fear that he had actually misinterpreted the lessons that Jiraiya had already given him and gotten the question wrong before Jiraiya burst into laughter. "Hahaha! You're smarter than you look!" Sasuke grimaced at the insult, but Jiraiya continued in a more subdued fashion before Sasuke could dwell on it further. "You're right. As ninja, we have a great amount of power, and if we can't control it, we could ruin many lives, start wars, destroy everything." Jiraiya slowly walked out of the woods they were standing in, and Sasuke followed him, only to be awed by the sight that had been on the other side of the trees.

A huge canyon stretched out before him, with a river running through it, coming from the waterfall at one end. But it was the two enormous statues standing across from each other that caught his attention. Sasuke had paid enough attention in Iruka's history classes to recognize the founder of the village, and no self-respecting Uchiha would fail to recognize Madara Uchiha. What Jiraiya said next was what truly drove home the wonder though.

"This is the Valley of the End. It's actually a testament to the power of the two ninja who fought here. I'm sure you recognize them?" Not waiting for an answer to his rhetorical question, Jiraiya continued. "Their battle drastically altered the landscape, creating this valley. And there's a prophecy that my student will be capable of even more. My student was prophesized to either save the world, or destroy it, and my choice would determine that choice." Sasuke wasn't one to believe in prophecy, but the serious tone that Jiraiya used was enough to keep any scoffs of derision under lock and key.

"I thought I had found that student twice already, but both died and I don't plan on training another student. Do you think you can handle this responsibility?" asked Jiraiya, completely serious. The look he sent at Sasuke was enough to paralyze the young Uchiha, freezing his body in place.

Sasuke finally managed to find his voice. "Y-yes." said Sasuke, berating himself mentally for stuttering. Jiraiya's terrifyingly serious demeanor changed immediately, and he returned to the bubbly pervert that Sasuke had known up until now.

"Alright then, Tsunade's always been the gambler, but I think I'll roll the dice one last time. Don't let me down kid!" The Sannin began to walk back in the direction of the Hidden Leaf Village, almost leaving the shell shocked Uchiha behind. "Hurry up, I've got lots to teach you! Challenge one: keep up!" That brought Sasuke to his senses, as he hurried to catch up to the Sannin, who had begun to move incredibly fast by jumping through the trees. Sasuke could discern the concept behind the technique easily enough, but as the many tumbles from the treetops would prove in the coming hours, the idea was difficult to put into practice.

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**A/N: Chapter four up! Wooo! Man, who needs to study for finals anyway? I do, actually. Next up is Sakura, but since her training is mostly studying anatomy and such, I may add in a spar between Naruto and Sasuke at the end, combine her chapter with the one where they all get back together. Regardless, the next one might be a while, or maybe not, since break is happening soon. Whatever.**

**Hope the fact that I've never played competitive poker isn't too apparent here. If anyone more knowledgeable notices some huge error, please tell me so I can fix it. Funny story behind this chapter, it was salvaged from my first fic idea, and took place with Kakashi teaching just Sasuke and Naruto about the vices, with Naruto taking Fu's role here as winning via luck vs Sasuke's skill. He had the Sharingan in the original though. Regardless, I'm glad I got to use it in some form. Also, if you haven't read my previous fic, Dawn's Sage, my personally theory is that the Seven Tail's power is unnatural luck, since it introduces itself as "Lucky Number Seven". Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


	5. Chapter 5

The Sannin's Apprentice

Chapter 5

It had been a few days since the Sannin had chosen their apprentices, and Sakura hadn't seen much of her new teammates despite them all being, you know, a team. Sasuke had apparently been dragged along on some kind of impromptu training trip, and when Sakura ever saw Naruto, he was either sleeping or looked to be in desperate need of sleep, which was an impressive feat given his seemingly limitless endurance. Back in the Academy, anything he was the good at was because he could do it longer than anyone else… when he wasn't cutting class.

Sakura however, had mostly been reading books, occasionally practicing on some poor fish that ended up dead more often than not in the afternoons. Her mornings were spent on the more physical aspects of being a ninja, including a chakra control exercise she had gotten down pat rather quickly. This was the first time Lady Tsunade had taken time out of the generic lessons on chakra control and physical conditioning to teach something specific. "What's the first thing a medic ninja needs to do?" asked Tsunade in that special way that made you feel that you were wrong before you even answered.

Heal others was the obvious answer, but Tsunade would never have asked the question if the answer were so mundane, nor would they have taken time out her tree climbing exercises if the answer didn't require some kind of special attention. Thinking back to the laws of being a medic ninja that she had committed to memory, Sakura thought about being the last in the squad to go down, and her eyes lit up with the joy of having the answer to a question. "Not get hit?" she asked tentatively.

Sure enough, Sakura was rewarded with a smack on the head from Tsunade. "No! The first thing a medic needs to do is heal her teammates. I can't believe you missed such an obvious answer." Sakura had a sneaking suspicion that if she had answered healing, the answer would have been not getting hit, but she held her tongue. "But you are partly right, I suppose. You can't be healing people if you're the one who's injured. So we're going to work on your dodging today." A shiver ran up Sakura's spine at the emphasis Tsunade put on the word dodging.

"You're goal is to not get hit!" shouted Tsunade as she unsealed a pile of soccer balls. Giving one an experimental bounce, Tsunade punted the ball so hard that Sakura was surprised it didn't pop and sent it flying towards the pink haired genin. Sakura screamed a bit as she dived out of the way in a panic. Sakura quickly jumped up to her feet and dusted herself off, missing the second ball that caught her full in the face.

The blow sent her flying head over heels, and Sakura landed face first in the dirt. By the time her world stopped spinning and ringing, Tsunade had sealed up the rest of the soccer balls and retrieved the two that had been launched by her powerful kicks. "I'm impressed you managed to dodge the first one. We'll be doing this every morning from now on until you manage to dodge them all. I have to get your afternoon's lesson on poisons ready, so you should use this time to get your face looked at. Might have done something to it with that second ball."

Feeling her face, Sakura did notice bit of blood stuck to her finger. She would have probably freaked out if her brain wasn't working a mile a minute to keep her conscious. "Why don't you fix it?" The request was originally meant to be an accusation, but it came out slurred, and more curious than angry.

"I have to set up your lesson, and I don't need the practice. Besides, they know what they're doing down there well enough to not screw this up." said Tsunade. "Think of this as incentive to dodge next time!" With that overly jolly outlook, Tsunade left to ready the more intellectual lesson for the afternoon. Sakura was determined to get to the hospital before the shock of getting hit so hard wore off, and took off at a slightly wobbly sprint.

The bleeding hadn't really stopped by the time she arrived at the hospital, though it had slowed a little. Luckily, it was a bit of a slow day, and she was brought right in. The doctor that came through the door wasn't someone she had seen around the hospital before, though he looked the part, what with his white coat and large glasses. "Well, what do we have here?" he said in a rather pleasant voice that made him seem easy to trust. Sakura had to hand it to him, his bedside manner was impeccable. "Just a little cut, shouldn't be too hard to patch up. We'll have you out of here in no time."

Sakura knew he was downplaying the severity of her injuries. They weren't terrible, but they would take the majority of her break to fix up. Sakura closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh to relax as the silver haired doctor raised his hands, already glowing green with healing chakra. "I haven't seen you around the hospital before, are you new here?" she asked, deciding to fill the silence.

The injuries didn't require too much focus, and her caretaker was able to respond without ceasing the steady flow of chakra. "Yeah, I recently finished up a particularly long mission, and I'm just helping out around the hospital in case my mentor needs me on hand. Small stuff like this mostly so that I'm ready at a moment's notice."

"Oh, who's your mentor?" asked Sakura curious to see if she knew him. She had only been with Tsunade for a few days, and had taken it upon herself to memorize the names and faces of the hospital's regular staff. She felt like she had been doing well, but this was a great opportunity to test herself in the guise of regular conversation. After all, ninja were supposed to be sneaky.

Pulling his hands away for what Sakura supposed was a break, he pulled out a large stack of cards, rifling through them at an incredible speed before pulling one out seemingly at random and staring at it for a few seconds. He smiled a bit as he put the cards away. "Ah, your Lady Tsunade's apprentice. I suppose there's no harm in telling you that my mentor is Lord Orochimaru then."

Sakura was taken aback, both by the fact that he knew of her still fresh promotion, and his own high training pedigree. Seeing her shock, the silver haired man held up his hands defensively. "I'm not an apprentice or anything, I just sort of help out with his research when I'm in town. He's more of a role model to me than a mentor."

"Okay, but how did you know I was Lady Tsunade's apprentice? I'm still telling myself that it's not some kind of mistake!" said Sakura, able to accept that some people would look up to Orochimaru. As a kunoichi, her favorite Sannin had been somewhat defined by her gender, so it she had never really looked too closely at either of the male Sannin.

The bespectacled medic ninja chuckled softly. "I didn't even go looking for that information. Lady Tsunade took an apprentice. Sakura Haruno has been the talk of the hospital for a while now. It's not every day that someone as famous as her in the medical field takes on an apprentice." Sakura sighed in relief at her own paranoia. Of course he would have heard about her if he had been hanging around the hospital. Pushing his glasses up, the silver haired medic got out of his chair and began to walk towards the door.

Sakura waved her arms and spoke up in annoyance at him seemingly abandoning her in the middle of treatment. Tsunade had made it clear she wasn't a medical ninja yet, but even she knew you didn't leave a patient in the middle of treatment. "Aren't you going to finish up? You shouldn't just leave a patient like that."

He raised a hand to the back of his neck sheepishly as he turned around. "Ah, sorry about that. I actually finished up before we started talking, I thought you realized. Your injuries were just a few scratches, not nearly as bad as they seemed." Sakura was a little skeptical, since even healing cuts as quickly and effortlessly as he did required some medical skill, not mastery, but certainly more than Sakura would expect him to have based on his relatively young age.

"What did you say your name was?" asked Sakura, in part to learn a new face that she would be seeing around the hospital and also to find out a little bit more about this mysterious ninja.

"Ah, I never did introduce myself, did I?" he said, laughing softly at his own rudeness. "You'll have to forgive me. My name is Kabuto Yakushi, and I'll be tending to your injuries today." Sakura laughed with him at the very standard greeting used by the hospital staff when treating less life threatening injuries. Many ninja would come in for daily checkups after training, making the greeting a bit of a poorly kept in joke. Still, just a few days had been enough for Sakura to catch onto the phrase's less than serious status among the staff.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Kabuto stopped laughing. "Ah, I'd best be going. I have another appointment." Sakura looked up at the clock as well, lamenting the fact that most of the time before her afternoon lessons had been used up by the hospital visit.

"Aw man, I hardly have any time for lunch…" she complained aloud. It was mostly to herself, but Kabuto overheard her.

"If you're in a rush, there's a ramen stand not far. The staff usually goes there in a pinch. Good noodles." mused Kabuto as he walked out of the room. Sakura thought about it. She didn't have a hatred of ramen, and neither did she have a lot of time. Why not?

The ramen stand was rather close, and it appeared she wasn't the only person there. "Hey Naruto!" Sakura figured some attempt to be social was in order, as the two were now teammates and while Naruto was certainly about to prove the trust misplaced, she hoped he wouldn't try to ask her out on a date again.

Surprisingly, Naruto was sluggish to even look at her. At first she wrote it off as him being rude, but the dark circles under his eyes testified to him merely being tired. Very tired. "Oh, hey Sakura. What are-" Naruto paused to yawn heavily. "-you doing here?"

"I needed a quick lunch." she said simply, sitting down and facing the man behind the counter. "One miso ramen please." Seeing the man confirm her order, Sakura turned back to her less attractive teammate, who was eating his noodles at a snail's pace. "Are you okay? You don't look so good. Less so than usual even."

Her smirk made it clear the last jab had been in jest, but Naruto just yawned again before responding. "Anko's been giving me extra training every night for the past week or so. I haven't slept in-" Naruto yawned again. "-five days, I think?" Sakura gasped at the severity of Naruto's sleep deprivation. She wasn't a professional medic yet, and even she knew that was bad.

"Naruto, you need to get some sleep!" she chastised. "It isn't healthy. If this Anko person does another training session tonight, just skip it and get a good night's rest."

Naruto's eyes opened fully for the first time since she had seen him today. "I can't do that." It was clearly meant to be a loud declaration, but it came out as just agitated. "If I don't train, I'll never get better than Sasuke. I won't slow you two down!" That last bit managed to come out with an impressive amount of conviction, given Naruto's state.

Sakura was speechless for a split second, impressed by Naruto's dedication to getting stronger. She could likely stand to lose a few nights to training as well. Regardless though, Naruto's approach was as likely to kill him as make him stronger. "Still though, if you're tired all the time, you'll actually do worse."

"What? No way." said Naruto. "If you train, you get stronger, it's simple science!" Sakura broke her chopsticks in half, preparing to eat her ramen. Taking one small bite, Sakura mused that Kabuto was right, this was good ramen.

"Sleep deprivation impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently. You're actually learning less if you don't sleep." Sakura was essentially spouting a section of her textbooks from yesterday's lesson, focusing on the side effects of using soldier pills in lieu of sleep verbatim, but Naruto seemed surprised. "I'm the medic on the team, so you're getting a good night's sleep, doctor's orders!" Sakura attempted to be forceful, and it seemed to work. Tsunade would have no doubt made her very aware of the fact that she was not a doctor yet, but it was just for emphasis really, and Naruto didn't know she wasn't a doctor yet anyway.

"You're right Sakura!" Naruto let out a yawn in spite of his newfound fervor. "I'll sleep like a baby, or my name isn't Naruto Uzumaki!" Sakura sighed at Naruto putting so much energy into something as mundane as sleeping.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm late for training with Lady Tsunade." Sakura placed her money on the counter, thanked the cook for the meal, and turned to leave. "See you later Naruto!"

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Sakura hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Naruto for a long period of time since, but he seemed more energetic than he had been recently, so Sakura assumed he had taken her advice to heart. Motivated by Naruto's desire to become stronger, Sakura began to take her own training far more seriously. By the end of the week, she was deemed 'less of a failure than before' at the dodging exercises by Lady Tsunade.

Sakura had been going for quite a while, and the fatigue was beginning to show. Eventually, Tsunade kicked a ball too hard, and Sakura wasn't quite quick enough to evade it completely. The soccer ball clipped her side, sending her spinning across the ground from the momentum it carried. Despite the pain, it was far better than her disastrous first attempt. Getting up, Sakura readied herself for Tsunade's negative reinforcement.

"You know the goal here is to avoid the balls, right? If you get hit after this short a time, you'll never make it in a real fight." said Tsunade angrily. Sakura sighed at her mentor's abrasive nature, and marveled at the fact that she herself was beginning to take it in stride. "Get yourself to the hospital, and meet me back here for the afternoon lessons. I got something special." Sakura knew it would be fruitless to try and get more out of her until Tsunade was good and ready to share her lesson plans.

Nodding respectfully, Sakura left and made her way to the hospital for another checkup. In addition to keeping her injuries from adding up from her failed dodging attempts, it was also useful to just see the medical ninja at work. Her bruised ribs were tended to by Kabuto again, as he seemed to never have more pressing matters around lunchtime. He was certainly easy to relax around, and was always willing to give out any pointers he had found as an active medic.

Other than a neat little trick for telling apart a healing herb and a frustratingly similar lethal poison, the two didn't chat about anything of importance. Swinging by her house to grab some quick lunch, Sakura made her way back to the training grounds to find a rather impressive sight. Standing next to Lady Tsunade were her two teammates, along with Sakura's two teammates. Even just standing with their backs to her, Sakura was stopped in her tracks by the combined presence of all three Sannin.

"Well, look who finally made it." said Tsunade, looking over her shoulder at the pink haired girl. "Come here and I'll explain your test." Sakura perked up at the word test, even though she knew they wouldn't be out in a field for a written test. "You're teammates are going to spar a bit for their test, but you aren't combat oriented. Your job here is to diagnose their injuries and the treatment you'd perform if you were capable. We'll match it up to the actual diagnosis and treatment later. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am." said Sakura with a nod, before turning her attention to her two teammates. Naruto looked ecstatic to fight Sasuke and his grin seemed to be infectious as even the normally stoic Uchiha looked eager to get started.

Jiraiya raised one hand dramatically in the air. "BEGIN!" he shouted, causing Sakura to wince at the volume he decided to use. Naruto and Sasuke took off at each other, beginning the spar with some rather impressive Taijutsu. Despite Naruto's usual reckless abandon, he was the one fluidly dodging around Sasuke's strikes. Both seemed to be using styles with the goal of countering an opponent's strike after dodging, which led to few blow being landed. Though Naruto was less skilled than Sasuke in terms of polish and fluidity, Sasuke seemed to always be reacting a second too late to capitalize on overextensions in Naruto's attacks or dodge completely.

Naruto ducked under Sasuke's swing and jabbed up with a flat hand, looking to poke Sasuke with all four fingers apparently. Regardless, Sasuke dodged by tilting his head to the right, and counterattacked in a strange way. Instead of just hitting Naruto, Sasuke snapped his head to the left, trapping Naruto's hand between the side of his head and his neck to hold Naruto in place. Naruto's eyes widened as he tried to attack with the other hand, but Sasuke was quicker, smacking Naruto across the face with a punch strong enough to send Naruto skidding back.

Sakura decided to do her diagnosis aloud as Jiraiya childishly taunted Orochimaru. "That likely caused some bruising, but nothing the Mystical Palm Technique won't be able to fix." Tsunade remained stoic, only nodding to signal that she had heard at all.

Meanwhile, Naruto wiped a bit of blood from under his nose with his thumb. "Nice one Sasuke, I might have to get serious!" Sakura wondered how he maintained such zeal despite being the one who just got decked in the face.

"You're welcome to try, deadlast." taunted Sasuke, using Naruto's old schoolyard nickname. Naruto just grinned even wider as he brought his hands up into a strange seal that looked to Sakura like a modified Ram seal of some kind. Sasuke readied himself to dodge the technique, but all that came from Naruto was a cloud of smoke that stopped well short of Sasuke.

Naruto emerged from the smoke looking triumphant at his strange technique, and Sakura saw why when another Naruto rushed out of the smoke, followed by several more. "Clones?" Sakura couldn't help but be impressed that Naruto already knew a technique from the Academy's last year so well, considering his usually dismal performance with them. There seemed to be no noticeable difference between the Naruto clones which meant Sasuke would have to treat every one as dangerous until he could find out which Naruto wasn't an illusion.

Sasuke smirked quietly at the new development as several clones rushed him. Sasuke reached into his pouch and smashed a smoke pellet into the ground as he jumped back from it. Sakura saw what Sasuke was doing, and she marveled at his ingenuity. The real Naruto would disturb the smoke as he barreled out of it, while the illusionary clones wouldn't. Seeing the smoke move, Sasuke rushed forward to intercept. Sliding in low, he delivered a powerful kick to the underside of his teammate's jaw, sending him flying up.

Sakura was about to comment on the damage to Naruto's jaw and the likely concussion, but her teammate exploded into smoke before she could speak up. All she could manage was a confused "What?" before the real Naruto snuck up behind Sasuke and got him in in hold that they had learned at the Academy. It was really useful for subduing opponents, since they couldn't use their hands, or move their arms at all really. One of the clones ran up to Sasuke from the front, a gesture Sakura found rather pointless, as they all knew who the real Naruto was. The prankster might has found a way to fool the smoke, but physically restraining someone wasn't something a clone could do.

Yet the attacking Naruto landed a very real punch on Sasuke, and Sakura automatically assessed the damage from the attack before questioning how a clone was able to touch Sasuke at all, let alone either restrain or hit him. Nobody seemed willing to answer, and Naruto went for another punch. This time though, Sasuke smacked his head into the face of the Naruto holding him, who exploded into smoke at the hit. Falling backwards, Sasuke dodged the hit, flipping away to create some distance. "What was that? Clones are just illusions, they don't have substance. Those clones had weight when I hit them." said Sasuke.

"Hahaha! Jealous of my Shadow Clone Technique Sasuke!" laughed Naruto. "They're super easy to make, and each one is totally real! If you think there's just one of me, you're in for a world of hurt!"

"Really?" asked Sasuke. "They seemed pretty fragile to me. One hit wonders, looks like." Naruto immediately stopped acting so full of himself, and his laughter slowed to a nervous chuckle.

"Whatever, I'll still send you packing with them!" Creating the seal again, Naruto created an even larger cloud of smoke than before, this one completely enveloping Sasuke as well. When the smoke cleared, Sakura was floored by the sheer number of clones Naruto was capable of producing. One thing was wrong though. In the sea of orange before her, Sasuke's dark blue outfit should stand out like a sore thumb.

"What the?! Where'd he go!?" shouted one of the clones. Or maybe it was the real Naruto, Sakura honestly couldn't tell at this point. "He must have transformed into me to hide!" shouted another. "Alright! You know what to do!"

All the clones of Naruto promptly pulled out a kunai and stabbed themselves in the hand, exploding once more into a massive cloud of smoke obscuring the battle from Sakura's view. Before the smoke could clear, Sasuke was sent flying out of the smoke, skidding along the ground. Sasuke quickly got up, coughing while rubbing his neck. Naruto's grin had reached unseen levels once the smoke cleared, in spite of the bleeding wound on the back of his left hand. "How'd you like that Sasuke?"

"Not bad." admitted Sasuke through an expression that was half grimace, half smirk. "I might have to start taking this seriously." The jab clearly rubbed Naruto the wrong way, and the blonde brought his hands up into the now familiar seal for his shadow clone jutsu.

He created fewer clones this time, and they were spaced further apart, making the smoke they created useless as cover. The orange clad ninjas sprinted toward Sasuke, who lowered himself into the fighting stance of the Uchiha clan, ready to react to the blows of multiple foes. Sadly, the scrolls Sasuke had used to teach himself the Uchiha clan's fighting style assumed that the reader had the famous bloodline limit of the clan to properly react to incoming strikes and counter attack.

What this translated to was Sasuke getting pummeled. By the time the Uchiha prodigy could react to the blow, the clone had jumped out of reach to make room for the next to come in. Sasuke just needed some distance to roast the group of shadow clones with a Grand Fireball, but the constant attacks left him no time to do more than barely dodge of block. He just needed to counter one attack.

Suddenly, Sasuke saw his opening. The next clone seemed to be moving a bit slower for some reason. Sasuke didn't bother to question it, instead shifting his head backwards and grabbing the clone's wrist on the side away from his face. Wasting no time, Sasuke brought his other palm sharply into his victim's elbow.

It would have likely broken the real Naruto's arm, but the shadow clone simply exploded into smoke and disappeared. Sasuke continued the motion to block a kick coming from his left. Twisting his wrist, Sasuke grabbed the clone's ankle, flinging him into another incoming attacker and causing them both to go up in smoke. Finally having a moment to breathe, Sasuke leapt back and up, flying through hand seals as Naruto replaced the clones that had been destroyed with a simple seal. "**Fire Style: Grand Fireball**!"

The flames engulfed the group of Naruto clones below. Not wanting to actually kill his teammate, Sasuke ended the technique more quickly than he usually would, and landed in a three point stance. The flames cleared, revealing one remaining Naruto who was undoubtedly the real one. Surprisingly, Naruto was still standing despite the burns on his body. Sasuke had noticed how the clones had been going down to weak hits, and had dialed back his fireball to less grand proportions that would leave his teammate alive.

Sasuke landed with one hand on the ground to help support him as Naruto glared at him angrily. Sasuke had really hoped that the Grand Fireball had finished it, but prepared himself for another bout with Naruto's clones. Naruto slowly raised his hands into the familiar seal to create more clones, only to stagger and collapse. Sasuke relaxed as Orochimaru came to collect his student.

"Kukuku, well fought." The Snake Sannin hefted Naruto over his shoulder like a sack of flour, eliciting a groan from the genin. "I can already see some things that we'll need to work on. I trust you saw the same?" Sasuke was confused about Orochimaru's question, before realizing that it was directed at Jiraiya, who had snuck up behind him at some point. Sasuke was more tired than he had thought.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to tell you, and give you an edge next time." said Jiraiya tauntingly. The Toad Sage turned to Sasuke then. "Think you can make it to the hospital on your own feet?" Sasuke's jaw was still incredibly sore, so he settled for a nod.

As the medic ninja was treating his injuries later, Sasuke couldn't help but be impressed at how strong Naruto was. The blonde had still lost to the Uchiha prodigy, as expected, but by a significantly smaller margin than Sasuke would care to admit. It was fine to have strong teammates, but Sasuke resolved to begin training even harder to keep his lead.

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Naruto awoke with a groan. "Oh, you're awake?" Naruto turned his gaze to the silver haired man treating his injuries. Trying to sit up, Naruto found himself held down by the young medic. "Please don't move until I'm done. The Nine Tails accelerates your healing dramatically, but it's far from perfect."

"That was a good spar, but there's no shortage of improvements to make." Naruto tilted his head, finding Orochimaru leaning against a wall, clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. "I thought the shadow clones merely split your chakra, but it's apparent they split your wits as well. I had planned for you to continue using you fighting style even when there were more of you."

Naruto berated himself mentally in addition to his mentor's reproach. Still, it seemed that small jab was the only critique Orochimaru had for the moment. Naruto did have one thing that had been on his mind though. "Sensei, near the end, Sasuke's eyes turned all red. What was that?"

Orochimaru set his clipboard down on the cart used to carry medical instruments. "That was likely the Sharingan, the famed bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan. It enables the user to see attacks before they happen, copy any technique from seeing it once, and makes even the most complex genjutsu child's play. Supposedly those eyes have even greater potential, though no concrete records exist that I know of."

"That doesn't seem fair." complained Naruto almost folding his arms in annoyance before remembering the medical ninja working on him.

"Kukuku. It is a tool, like any other. It will depend entirely upon Sasuke's ability whether his eyes are any use, though I'll wager he'll use them effectively. Besides, you have a most unfair advantage yourself, one you will have to learn to utilize." Naruto's eyes widened at the almost casual mention of the nine tailed fox. "Ah well, another lesson for another time. We will be working on more tests today, and I want you to be thinking of a Forbidden jutsu of your own to develop. It will take time, but I have a most tantalizing prize should you succeed."

Naruto's brain immediately leapt into overdrive trying to think of ideas, but one stood out to him in particular. Bloodlines were tools, like any old kunai. And if bloodlines were like kunai, anyone should be able to just pick it up.

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Sasuke's wounds were limited to bruises and concussions, common enough injuries when training. As such, the medical staff at the hospital had gotten rather good at treating them quickly and effectively. Still, walking was a little painful, and he was advised to take the rest of the day easy. Jiraiya had agreed, proposing some student-teacher bonding at the hot springs that had been promptly rejected.

Sasuke wasn't supposed to do any training, yet he found himself outside at the Uchiha clan's old training ground anyways. There was one thing he had noticed before during his spar with Naruto, and it demanded to be tried as soon as possible. Sasuke's chakra reserves were at about half, and he felt confident that this exercise would be easy. After all, given Naruto's bragging, coupled with the alarming rate he was able to churn out those shadow clones of his, how hard could it be?

Somehow, Sasuke had not only remembered the one seal perfectly, he also somehow knew how Naruto had been molding his chakra. It had never happened before, and Sasuke wrote it off as something unique about the technique. Sasuke raised his hands into the correct position, channeled his chakra carefully, and focused his mind entirely on the goal. He decided that despite the technique's apparent ease, he would start off small with only one. "**Shadow Clone Technique!**"

The effect was immediate. Sasuke could feel his chakra drop drastically, and the clone he formed was pathetic looking, on par appearance wise with an Academy student's first attempt. The clone lasted a few seconds before dispersing, and Sasuke collapsed on the ground, unable to even move beyond the heaving of his chest as he struggled to breathe. Slowly, his heart slowed down, and his chakra exhaustion became less severe, allowing him to sluggishly sit up and lean against a tree.

"Well this is a sorry sight indeed." Sasuke slowly turned his head to see Jiraiya approaching. "I decided to hang back. I could have told you not to try strange new techniques, but experience is a far better teacher than I could ever be."

"What… was that?" asked Sasuke, gasping for air. "That technique… was nowhere near as difficult when Naruto used it. And how did you know I was going to try it?"

"I actually stopped by to tell you how I knew. That Naruto kid noticed your eyes during your spar, though apparently you didn't. Congratulations on your Sharingan." Sasuke would have been jubilant at unlocking his clan's bloodline, but he was too tired to muster up much. "The reason that technique was so draining is because it is a chakra intensive forbidden jutsu reserved for jonin level ninja. Much like your eyes, Naruto has a bloodline of sorts. He'll have more chakra in a few years than you'll likely ever have."

Sasuke's body was immobile, but his mind was racing to process this information. Naruto also had a bloodline, one that enabled him to use powerful techniques like they were nothing. That settled it. Sasuke did have teammates worth fighting alongside, at least Naruto anyways. Itachi was still his, and his alone, but perhaps Naruto would be able to help him achieve the power he needed.

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**A/N: Chapter five up! Wooo! Time skip coming up next, and the first point that happens after the series proper starts. This initial arc is left ambiguous timeline-wise on purpose. This fight scene at the end was hard, since this is the first real fight scene I think I've written where the combatants are lower than chunin in rank or power. In addition, Kabuto meeting Orochimaru in this universe has been added to the list of things to write alongside Pain vs. Tobi. I'm going to get to those one day.**

**Again, follow to find out when I update, since it isn't consistent at all. That said, hope you enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


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